Looking For Angels
by Copperpelt
Summary: Something has changed in Alice after being hit by a car; she can see something in Shun and others like him that nobody else can. Now Alice is stuck between a war of fallen angels and falling in love with one. Based of the song by Skillet. R&R
1. Winds Of Warning

_Alice_

It was a gorgeous morning as I walked from Runo's café to go and run their morning errands while they still slept. I didn't mind doing this for them. It was the least I could do for them since they let me stay with them after my grandfather died not long ago. The wind felt nice and refreshing after yesterday's light rain. Something about the day after a rain always made the world seem cleaner.

Very few cars were on the streets. Only the people driving to jobs that were far away or that had to be there early were out driving. Without many people walking around, I allowed my mind to wander. I knew the rest of the Brawlers were at Murucho's. Including Shun. Runo and Julie couldn't ever understand why I had a thing for him. They always told me it was because I was desperate or it was the basic good girl is always attracted to the bad boy. Several years back they wouldn't of been complaining if I liked him, but recently something in Shun had changed.

Even Dan had noticed it, and Dan is as clueless as they come. But recently, Shun had started up some issues with the Bay City cops. It had been everything from caught with illegal substances, to public assault. I always kept telling myself that that wasn't the Shun from several years ago. Something had to of happened to him recently and sent him on this downward spiral. But even Runo and Julie are worried that he'll go over the deep end one day and I might get caught in the crossfire.

I kept telling them that would never happen, but I did want to help try and get Shun back on the right track. Maybe it would save him just in time before something really bad happened. I didn't like Shun cause of the good girl bad boy thing like Runo and Julie had applied it to. I liked Shun before all of that, but just didn't make it that known back then. Why I had decided to let my crush go public now, I had no clue. It was just one of those strange attractions. Like when people are drawn to something that they couldn't explain. My ears thought they heard something above my head, and I looked up into the sky to see if I could find the source.

I didn't see anything. _must have been a large bird or something. Isn't it migrating season?_ Even though I couldn't see anything, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was looking down over me. Watching me. I checked up on all of the rooftops to see if I could spot somebody spying on me. There wasn't anyone. _You're just hearing stuff._

The organic market where Runo's parents bought all of their ingredients, was just right across the street. It was already busy with people purchasing and picking up orders. They were pricey, but they made everything taste better. I held tightly onto the bag I had brought with me to put the Misaki's order in, and looked both ways down the street. There didn't seem to be a car for miles.

Before I stepped my foot onto the street, my body shivered and everything around me went black. I hadn't passed out though, it was like the world had disappeared and left me standing in the dark remains. I was cold, and held my head down and wrapped my arms around my body. While everything around me was black, where I stood was lit up with a blue light. I couldn't seem to move. It was as if I had been frozen. There was a whispering in the air. The voice sounded familiar to my ears.

_"Don't do it. Don't cross the street. Don't go, Alice."_ Once the voice finished speaking to me, the world returned to me once again. I looked around me to see I was still standing next to the street across from the market. People kept on walking by. Was I the only one who experienced that? It seemed like time had frozen around me when that happened. I shook my head. Should I heed that voices warning?

But I had to pick up the Misaki's order. I couldn't just come back to them empty handed and tell them some voice told me not to go and get their order. I still couldn't shake the feeling that a set of eyes were watching me from behind. As if it was the person who had told me not to cross the street, and they were waiting to see if I'd obey their warning. I had to go across that street though.

I double, no. Triple checked the streets for car. There still weren't any for miles. What danger was there in crossing in this empty street? I took two steps onto the asphalt from the concrete sidewalk, and heard somebody scream at me, "Get out of the way girl!" I turned and saw a car heading straight for me. Everything slowed down. Where did that car come from? There weren't any for miles!

I was paralyzed with fear, and fretting when everything would speed back up. My eyes found one thing that stood out from a crowd of shocked people. It was Shun. He was the only person with color and motion, while the rest were frozen and black and white. It was like a strange painting. The car then hit me, and everything returned to normal. My vision was blurred, and my hearing was fuzzy.

I heard people screaming and yelling at others to call 911 for help. I tasted something warm and coppery in my mouth. Blood was coming up. Despite being just hit by a car, I wasn't in much pain. I realized I must have been dying. So this was how it was going to end for me. Struck by a car. At least I wasn't in pain. But I had never told Shun how I felt about him, or how I wanted to help and get his life back on the right path. I made out the sounds of sirens. The ambulances were here to take me to a hospital, and the cops were probably with them too.

Was this a hit and run? I had no clue if the person who hit me stopped or kept going. I couldn't move my head, but I could still move my eyes. I used them and looked over and saw Shun as clear as daylight while the rest of the world was a blur. He looked different though. Not human. His eyes were glowing gold and the pupils looked slit like that of a cat. He looked away from me and stalked off into the blurred world around me. What did he play in this? Was he the cause of me getting run over?

If he was, why would he do such a thing? I had never done anything to hurt him. I felt my body being lifted onto a stretcher, and I knew I was in the back of an ambulance. A woman's voice was asking me questions, but they were all mumbled and jumbled together to where they sounded like gibberish.

I tried to tell them I had no clue what they were saying, but I couldn't speak. Something was stopping me from using my words. Like I hand was placed over my mouth. I wanted to tell the lady that if Runo and her parents got wind of this, that I didn't blame them for what happened. I couldn't stay alert any longer, and I blacked out.

_Alice_

I was walking through a forest, and by the looks of the sky it was nearing dusk. Through the trees I saw they sky was purple and orange. In the distance, I made out the sound of waves. There was water near here. I walked in the direction of the waves. It was so peaceful here. The last thing I had remembered, was that I had been hit by a car that came out of nowhere, and I had seen Shun clearly when the rest of the world wasn't.

Maybe I was dead, or in some in between state. I was sure I were dead, I'd see more people that had passed away, and I'd have angel wings. At least, that's what I had been told. There was a clearing up ahead. When I made it there, I was greeting with a stunning sunset over an endless ocean. The fiery orange sun set the water on fire as well. The waves were crashing into this huge mass of land that jutted out over the water.

The sea breeze felt wonderful on my skin. I walked to go and stand out on the jutting mass of land and stand over the water. It had to be a good thirty feet from the waves, so I'd be nice and safe. But there was somebody there already. They were standing right on the edge, and looking up into the sky. I couldn't make out a face or any features cause he wore a hooded robe, but there was something that knocked me off my mental balance.

He had huge, jet black feathered wings on his back. _An angel? But I thought the wings were supposed to be snow white._ I was completely stunned. I said quietly, "He-Hello?" The creature turned his head slightly and I only caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were golden and had slit pupils. They looked just like the eyes that Shun had before I blacked out. But I attributed that to being hit by a car.

I wasn't able to say anything, before the ground opened up underneath me and I fell into a dark pit. The hole closed slowly above me and everything was dark as I fell. My body then shot straight up, and my heart was racing and my body poured with sweat. I frantically looked around to know where I was. Four white walls surrounded me and wires were stuck into my arm and something was beeping.

A voice yelled out. "Alice! Oh my God! You're awake!" I turned to the voice and was being hugged by a blue haired girl. "Wh-Where am I?" The girl was holding my hand tightly and trying to calm me down. "Alice, calm down. You were hit by a car three days ago and were sent to the hospital." I was relaxing a bit, and looked at the room. It was a hospital room. Smell included. I looked down at my body. My arm and chest was wrapped tightly with bandages, my face and arms had minor cuts and scraps, and when I lifted up the end of the blanket I saw my ankle had been wrapped up. "I-I survived?"

Now I saw who all was in the room with me. Runo, Julie, Murucho, and Dan. They all looked worried. Runo wrapped her arms around me, trying to be careful to not touch my injuries. "Oh, Alice. I'm so sorry this happened to you. We were all so worried about you. If it wasn't for Shun calling the ambulance when he did then you might of not made it. Thank heavens he was there when this happened."

_So Shun really was there. It wasn't the injuries playing tricks on me. But his eyes had to be part of being run over._ Murucho walked over to the side of my bed and told me, "Eye witnesses told the cops that the car just came out of nowhere. Turns out there was some elderly man driving and he had fallen asleep at the wheel. They took him to the hospital as well, but he died of a heart attack yesterday." This was so much to take in. I was sure I was going to die. Hell, I was sure I had died after that dream.

Was it a dream? It seemed so real. My room door opened and Shun walked in. His eyes were closed though. _Open them. I have to know._ They opened up and they were normal. No slit pupils or intense golden color. So seeing his eyes look inhuman was just from being run over. I had proven that. But there was something different about him. The frame of his body reminded me of the black winged angel I saw in my dream. _If only I had seen its face._ I thought back to the hooded robe he wore.

It looked a lot like the ones that Shun had worn a few times. But it was a lot longer than any he had. Maybe my dream was showing my what I expected dying to be like, and everything that I liked; beautiful forests, sunsets, and Shun. If that was him. He had yet to say anything, so I started up a conversation. "I was told you called 911 when I was run over. What were you doing in that area anyway? I mean, I'm thankful you did call them, but I just want to know."

He shrugged his shoulders and said, "I was just in the area that morning." Everything that had happened, was just fitting together too strangely. Dan stretched and told me, "Well, it's great to see you're ok Alice. But we have to get going. We'll see you tomorrow!" They waved to me and all left the room. Except for Shun. I asked him, "Shouldn't you be going with them?"

He had his eyes closed, but when he opened them I was speechless. They were blazing gold and had the slit pupils. He told me, "You should of listened to my warning. That way you wouldn't be in debt to me." He then stalked out of the room, leaving my heart racing. _His….His eyes…..What are you?_

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><p>omg. i'm way too much of a workaholic. 0.0 lo. XD i swear one of my friends is going to stage an intervention on me saying that i write too much. -shrugs- oh well. ah. why are first chapters always the best? o.o lol. XP if this is your first time reading one of my stories, i suggest reading some of my other ones. and if you've read my stories before (<em>Broken Bones, You're Still The One, The End Of Our World<em>) then you know how i work. :) well, read, review, and other things! ~Copperpelt~


	2. Suspecting Something More

_Alice_

What was Shun? Nobody with eyes like that could be human. It wasn't possible. And how did I survive being hit by that car? There shouldn't of been any way that I lived. I had so many unanswered questions that I wanted to put to rest. The door opened to my room, and instinctively thought it was Shun. I calmed down when I saw it was a doctor. Mine probably. He held a chart and looked at me then smiled. "Well, it's good to see you're awake." _Is it really a good thing that I'm awake?_

He placed my chart on the foot of my bed and looked out the window of my room. He said to himself, "What a beautiful day." I raised an eyebrow. You couldn't even see the blue sky or sun through endless gray clouds. _This guy thinks gloomy weather is beautiful? Well, I guess that's his preference._ Parts of the clouds were lit up with the sunlight on the other side.

They seemed oddly high up too. This day was getting weirder and weirder every minute. I turned back to my doctor and asked, "So, when am I going to be able to go home?" He took one last look at the sky and turned back to me. "According to your chart you should be able to go home tomorrow with the way you're healing. It's really quite odd that somebody heals this quickly. Oh well, everyone's body is different."

_I've only been here three days and I'm already going home?_ My doctor walked out of my room and took my chart with him. I reached for the remote that went to my TV and flipped it on. I wasn't surprised when I saw the only thing they had was the weather channel. There was some skinny weatherman pointing to the green screen and showing what was going on. _Wait a minute._ According to his map, all of Bay City was sunny and nice right now. I looked back out of the window. That was not nice and sunny. _You've got your info wrong dude._

A sudden report flipped on and there was one of Bay City's channel 4 news reporters standing somewhere in the business district. It was another Slasher victim. They warned the viewers that the picture may be too gruesome for some younger people before they showed it. There was a young man, in maybe his twenties, laying in an alley without a shirt on and his body slashed apart. I shook my head. For some reason, crime had spiked heavily in Bay City. And about the same time Shun started his downward spiral. All of us just agreed to say that Shun got caught up in it. There were many theories about the Slasher.

Some people said it was gang affiliated. While others just went with him being some seriously messed up maniac. But all the evidence pointed to gangs. All of his victims were about the same age in appearance. They all were strong and healthy, lived on the streets, were highly involved with crime, and all of the male victims had been shirtless when they were attacked. This made a lot of investigators go down the path of sexual assault, but found no more evidence to justify it.

They also never found any trace of what type of weapon the Slasher used. Whatever it was, it was sharp. They had one victim that had actually been cut in half right under his ribs. I didn't like the thought of Shun being out there with that deranged maniac on the loose. Even if Shun wasn't human. He had still been my friend for a long time. _Maybe Shun's the Slasher._ It would of made sense if he was. Shun had ninja skills and was very lethal with a sword. But a lot of the murders took place when he was with us. So Shun couldn't of done those dastardly deeds.

The streets of Bay City weren't safe like they once had been before. It was really sad if you thought about it. It was starting to grow dark outside now, but the clouds were still there. It was as if they hadn't even moved. I pushed the little button on my bed and the lights in my room turned off as I got ready to fall asleep. It had been a weird day for me, and I just wanted to escape it. Maybe go back to that beautiful forest and see the face of that black winged angel again. I was just about to drift off, when I got a chill up my spine. I heard the sound of wind, and turned to see my room's window had been opened just a few inches. Was it open earlier? I didn't think so.

The wind was making my curtains blow with it. In the darkness, I saw that my curtains had also been closed. Nobody had been in the room to close them. I was getting a bad feeling about all of this. I tried to shut my eyes and go to sleep, but I found myself looking back at the window. The wind outside suddenly picked up, and the curtains flew up with it. Staring at me outside of the window, were two glowing red eyes that had slit pupils like Shun's. But the eyes I had seen Shun with were golden in color, not red. I started to panic and tried to find the nurse call button. I looked back at the window, and the eyes were still there.

They then just vanished. Like whatever was out there walked away. But I was four stories up. Nothing could walk away from up here. Unless they had a really long ladder. A nurse came into my room. I hadn't even noticed that I had succeeded in hitting the button. "Yes? How can I help you?" I didn't want to tell her about the eyes. They might think I was crazy and send me to the psychiatry ward. "Oh. Uh, the window was opened. I was wondering if you could close it for me." She walked over there and slid it shut. The curtains stopped blowing in the wind now that it had been cut off. I thanked her and she left me alone.

_Alice_

Sleep was out of the question that night. I had maybe dozed off once or twice, but only for a few minutes. It was morning now, and still cloudy. Although the weatherman kept saying was sunny. _He's going to have an angry audience._ Dan and the others showed up early that morning. Shun wasn't with them. Murucho asked me nicely, "So, how ya feeling, Alice?" I tried to not look so tired, and I was sure I was failing doing that. "I feel pretty good. A little tired. Hey, did you here? They're letting me go today." They all looked at each other. Runo asked me, "Are you sure? So soon after you got ran over?"

They were all thinking the same thing. I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I asked them the same thing. But apparently I'm healing pretty fast." They all seemed skeptical about it. I hated to ask them, but I went ahead, "Where's Shun?" Murucho pushed his glasses up and was about to speak when Dan stole his spotlight. "None of us know where he went, but given his streak lately there's no telling. I was sure he'd come and see you. Maybe he'll come by later." Murucho narrowed his eyes at Dan and asked me, "So, what time are they letting you out today? So I can send Kato to come and pick you up."

I turned down the TV so we could all hear each other clearly. "I have to be out of here by 1 'o' clock." Murucho started speaking again, but my focus fell back on the window. The curtains were open again. And nobody had opened them just like nobody had closed them. My eyes found where those red ones were last night. I was till disturbed by that even though they were no longer there. Murucho's voice broke my concentration on the window. "Well, we need to head out, Alice. I'll send Kato for you when you get out. Kay?" I nodded my head and watched them file out of my room once more. I faced back up at the TV and saw there was another Slasher attack. And this one was only about a mile from the hospital.

I cringed at the thought that those red eyes may of belonged to the Slasher. What if he wasn't human at all? They showed another picture of the victim. Another male with his body torn apart and shirtless. You had to admit, the victims were all attractive. The female ones always had seemingly perfect bodies while the males were sculpted the same way. The eyes on this victim were open this time.

I nearly lost my breath. His eyes were a vibrant green, and slitted pupils. How come the reporters weren't talking about his eyes? That seemed like something that would at least come up in my opinion. Maybe they thought he was wearing contacts. I could see plainly that he didn't have on any. He was one of those things. Whatever Shun was. Whatever that thing was outside of my window last night. What was going on in the world now? It was like I could see things that others couldn't.

Or if they could they didn't pay any mind to it. Perhaps I was just more observant than I used to be. My departure time came quickly, and I found myself on crutches and waited for Kato to pull up. I hated these things. They hurt my arms, but I couldn't stand on my still hurting ankle. Kato pulled up in front of the hospital and got out to help me into the limo. Kato was always so kind. Murucho was lucky to have him. When we got to Murucho's place, Kato helped me all the way up to the floor that Dan and the others were on. Julie was the first to see me enter the room, and jumped up to go and hug me.

She remembered my injuries last minute and stopped short of hugging me. "Sorry, Alice. Almost forgot." I smiled and told her it was ok. Shun wasn't in the room with the others. Not even in the corner. I had so much to ask him, and I wasn't about to give up either. I wanted to know what was up with the eyes and what he meant about me not listening to his warning and being in debt to him. The others started to ask me how I was feeling. I told them all I felt fine, but was going to go to sleep early.

They all seemed to understand. It was kind of Murucho to let me stay at his house, even though Runo's was very close to his. Runo didn't seem to mind. I started to think that she knew that Murucho's staff could take care of me better than they could since they had to work most of the day. My room was all made up for me. Fresh blankets and pillows, and they even put a get well card in the room. I smiled. I loved having such great friends. I carefully climbed into the bed, making sure to not move my injured body parts. Falling asleep now was easier than last night at the hospital. Maybe it was because it was still daytime and I felt safer in Murucho's mansion than that hospital.

_Alice_

My hours of peaceful sleep were shattered when something burst through my room window. I couldn't make out what it was in the darkness, but it was big. The window was destroyed and glass sparkled on the floor with what little moonlight got through the clouds.

I was leaned against the bed frame of the bed, trying to get as far away from whatever was in my room as I could. It looked human in shape, but that flew out of the door when two large, black wings unfolded from the being. The wings were just as wide as the figure was tall. Maybe even bigger. In my state of shock, I saw the intruder was shirtless and wearing torn black jeans.

I was horrified and sure my death was upon me. The eyes on the creature were shut, but when they opened they stood out against the dark room. Brilliant gold and slitted pupils. He stepped into the dim moonlight, and I saw his face. Shun. I froze where I was sitting, and took a deep breath and screamed.

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><p>ah. the art of uploading and BVB. X) check out my profile for a poll. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	3. Questions And Answers

_Alice_

I only had a chance to scream for a few seconds before Shun's hand covered my mouth. I was still yelling into it, trying to tell him to let me go. My demands were only muted. What was he going to do with me? Kill me? Torment me? It was hot around those black wings, and I was beginning to sweat. I was flailing my hands and kicking my feet, but it wasn't accomplishing anything. Next thing I knew, he had taken me down to the floor and pulled me under the bed. His body was pressed up against mine and his hand was still over my mouth as we laid under the bed.

I felt tears rolling down my cheeks and I tried to scream again. His grip tightened on me and he whisper harshly into my ear, "Be quiet!" I got the idea to bite his hand, and I was just about to when I heard the sound of large wings cutting through the wind. I froze when I saw a set of feet land on the floor in my room. I also saw the end tips of black wings. _Another one._ The larger shards of glass broke under his feet as he walked over them. I felt my body shaking with fear from both of these creatures; the one behind me that was keeping me quiet, and the one who was walking in the room.

I put two and two together and figured that the one in the room was after Shun. I heard his give an agitated sigh, and he padded off towards the window. The sound of his wings diminished in the distance. He was gone now. I hadn't even realized that Shun had let go of my mouth and had gotten out from under the bed. I scrambled to get out myself, and when I stood up he was on the other side of the bed. He narrowed his eyes at me and said sternly, "Next time I say be quiet, I mean it."

My hands and legs felt like jelly to my body. I had so much adrenaline going through my body at the moment that I thought I'd explode. Both of us turned to the door to hear the sounds of running footsteps. It was Dan and the others coming to see what was going on. Shun looked back at me and said, "Don't say a word and go along with me. Got it?"

Too afraid to say no, I agreed to go along with his plan. Dan was the first in the room, and he burst through the door to make his entrance. He flicked the light on when he cleared the door, and my eyes shut as they tried to adjust. Dan froze when he saw my tear stained face and Shun's shirtless body. It must have been a very compromising picture to the brunette. Dan spoke with a little embarrassment in his voice, "Oh. Um. I'm sorry if we interrupted anything. We just, uh, heard Alice. We'll go now."

Shun stopped them from leaving, and it was then that I noticed they weren't gawking at the golden eyes or black wings. _Don't they see them! They're right there plain as day!_ Shun spoke to his friend coolly, "Trust me Dan, it's not what you're thinking. I heard Alice scream myself and made it in here first. Apparently something burst through the window, maybe a bird, and shattered it. That had scared her and that's why she screamed."

They all turned to me to verify his statement. I remembered that Shun told me not to speak, so I nodded my head slowly. Dan scratched his head and said, "Well, if everything's ok I guess I'll head on back to bed." The others followed after him, and I ran up to the door and slammed it shut. My back was pressed against it, and my arms stretched out over it like I was blocking him from getting out. Like me standing there would do anything. I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Ok, what the hell are you and why can't they see you're wings and eyes?" I was shocked by how steady my voice sounded. The black feathers shone in the light given off by the ceiling fan. He laughed. "You could at least thank me for saving your life before you bombard me with questions." When he saw I wasn't impressed with his sarcasm, he sighed and I could tell he was getting serious. "Ok. It's probably easy to see I'm not a human, right? But what does that make me you ask? Well, I'm an angel. No, not like the kind that live in clouds and play harps."

I was shifting from foot to foot as I tried to stay off my hurt ankle. I said to him, "Ok, I get the concept that you're an angel. But I thought angels had white wings. Not black." He rolled his eyes and told me, "I was getting to that. You see, I'm a Fallen angel. As in a disgrace to the higher powers and all that stuff." I slowly made my way over to a dresser and propped myself on it. "What did you do to become a fallen angel?" Most people would have been flipping out, but I think I had gotten most if that out of my system when he crashed through my window. "That's kind of treading on personal territory."

He had to be kidding me. Personal territory? I could of laughed at all of this, if it wasn't standing right in front of me. He raised an eyebrow up at me and asked, "Are the wings really freaking you out that much?" I nodded my head. They really were. To see a human body have wings just wasn't something I was used to on a daily basis. The wings folded away, and he did a 360 turn to show me they were gone. Yes, they were _gone._ Not even marks on his back where they were. "Better now?" It was better, minus the eyes. If he had the ability to hide his wings, then he might have been able to do the same thing with those eyes. But I didn't want to press my luck.

He sat down on my bed and was saying under his breath, "I can't believe I had to hide my wings from a Bondage." _Bondage? _If me asking for his wings to go away was an issue, then I really wasn't about to ask him to do something about his eyes. I started approaching him cautiously and asked, "Why am I the only one who can see your wings and eyes? Are you hiding them from the others?"

He kicked his feet and rolled his eyes again. "God you ask a lot of questions. No, I'm not doing some magic trick so that the others can't see my wings. They can't see them or my eyes cause their mortal." I bent over and began to carefully move the shattered glass into one pile so it could be swept up. I asked him, "Then why can I see them? I'm a mortal too." I felt weird using all of these uncommon terms. He was picking at a string from my blanket and tore it off. "Yes, you're a mortal. But you're also a Bondage. My Bondage at that."

His? Did he think he owned me or something? I wasn't paying attention to what my hands were doing, and a shard of glass stuck into my hand. I yanked it back and started digging the glass out. "Bondage? What the hell is that?" I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed a tissue from the box and placed it on the small hole made by the glass. He stood up and started to act all professor like.

"A Bondage is a mortal who owes a life debt to an angel. You, are the mortal. And I, even though I'm a Fallen, am still an angel." This wasn't making much sense to me. I stood up and looked and him, and said, "Life debt? You mean from the car incident? All you did was call 911. That's hardly a life debt since the hospital saved me." He threw his head back and laughed. When he stopped, his hair fell over his golden eyes. "That's where you're wrong. I did a lot more than call for help. You see, we have what's called a Book of Fate. It's nothing more than a list of every living persons' name on Earth. It also gives the time, place, and date that they die. I had 'borrowed' it and flipped through the pages and saw you're name. But _somebody _doesn't listen to instructions that could save her life, and went ahead across the street. And you see, since you didn't listen the only way I could of saved you was to make a bond with you. And that bond is the reason you can see my wings and eyes, and the wings and eyes of other angels. Fallen and Holy."

I didn't have anything else to say, so he continued. "There are two worlds the coexist here on Earth. Well, three if you look at it from another perspective. You have the Holy Lands that are above us where the Holy angels reside. And you have us Fallens on Earth and underground. We walk past you humans everyday, but none of you know it. You could of talked to us and never of known. But since you have a bond with an angel, you've been given the ability to see this secret world that's hidden to everyone else."

I didn't know what I should of thought about this. Should I of felt special that I had been given this gift? Or cursed to be exposed to an underground world of angels and demons and things like that? "I have one more question. Who was that other angel that flew in here after you did?" His face turned cold and serious. Had I hit a soft topic? "Listen, it's been a long night for both of us. I'll answer more questions tomorrow."

I didn't have time to stop him before he walked out of the room and shut the door as he left. I turned and saw my shattered window that was letting in cold breezes. "What am I supposed to do about this?"

_Alice_

I moved to a different room that night, and made sure I locked the window. Which probably wouldn't do much, but it made me feel safer. I had obtained so much knowledge last night, that I was sure that it had to stay just between me and Shun. There was no way I could tell the others what I had seen and heard. And even if I did, they'd probably think I had lost my mind or had a dream. Maybe it was a dream. I walked out of my new room and towards the dining hall where the others would be.

My ankle was no longer bothering me, and I had actually taken the bandages off something last night before falling asleep. Even my arm and chest were feeling fine. Everyone was already sitting down and eating. I saw my plate was sat next to Shun. Before last night I would have been thrilled. Now I wasn't so sure. I took my seat anyway. Everyone looked tired from last night. I felt bad for waking them up, and worse for them thinking that I screamed caused a bird hit the window. When actually a bird-like creature did the damage.

I had just finished my last bite of eggs when Shun scooped me up by my uninjured arm and said, "I think me and Alice are going to go for a little walk around the park. What do you say, Alice?" Runo was glaring at Shun and said coldly, "Do you really think she should be out walking on that ankle?"

He looked down at it and shrugged. "Looks fine to me. Let's go, Alice." He didn't give me a chance to protest before he was dragging me out of the room. We were now walking down the sidewalks. I had a light jacket on, while Shun had on nothing more than a light green shirt and his black pants. "Ok, so why did you drag me out here?" He looked at me and said, "I'm going to finish explaining everything cause I'm sure you have more questions." I did. I stared up at the cloudy sky.

"This isn't a relative question to all the angel stuff, but why has it been so cloudy recently?" I wanted to know what was up with all the weather reports saying it's been sunny all week, when the sky had been gray and cloudy. He grimaced and said, "Actually, that is something related to the angel stuff. Those aren't clouds. That's the barrier between Earth and the Realm of the Angels. Also referred to the Holy Land by us Fallens because we can't return back there unless we're forgiven. We don't really see any point in calling it what it is cause there's only one kind of angel up there. But just like the wings and eyes, you can see it cause of the bond. The reason it's all clouded, is because it's meant as a punishment for those who had fallen. So that way we aren't able to see the sun, moon, stars, or sky. It really sucks."

What is so bad that any of them could of done that they wouldn't ever be able to see any of the objects in the sky? "Does that mean I won't ever be able to see the sky again either?" People weren't paying any mind to us as we walked down the streets. And to them, Shun's eyes looked normal. "Well, yeah. As long as there's a bond between you and me you're able to see everything that we can." All cause of this bond now, I might not ever see the stars that I once so loved to look at.

"So, the sky's going to be gray from now on?" He yawned and told me, "Well, yeah. Until the bond is broken." He had my attention now. We turned a street corner and almost ran into another person. We both apologized to him and kept on walking. "How do you break a bond?" An arrogant smile ran across his face. "A bond can be broken either by repaying the life debt. Or until one of us dies."

I stopped walking. He couldn't be serious. I had to either save his life or hope he dies for this body to break? I was getting more and more tired of all the rules and stipulations that had to be followed. Shun had stopped walking himself, and was looking back at me. I asked him, "Out of everyone in that book, why did you pick _me_ to go through all of this?" He walked up to me and took my chin in his hand. Shun brought my gaze into his, and told me, "Cause there's something special about you. I just don't know what."

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><p>oh. my. gosh. im so tired. yall are lucky i like writting. XP -passes out- read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	4. Underground

_Alice_

We had left the sidewalk once it had started to grow too busy, and moved over to the Bay City park. It wasn't crowded today, being a weekday and everyone was either at work or school. There were a few parents out with their younger kids, but they didn't pay any mind to us. We found a secluded bench out on the outer parts, and I sat in it while Shun stood on the side. Sirens blared in the distance and you saw cop cars and an ambulance fly past us. _Probably another Slasher victim…..I wonder if Shun knows anything about the Slasher. _

"Hey, Shun. Do you know anything about the Slasher? Just curious." He smiled and spoke, "That's what I find funny about humans. The Slasher isn't even a person. It's a Fallen. But the victims aren't human as you've probably seen." I had. The first time I noticed was when they showed the picture of the last victim and his eyes looked different. Shun continued to explain. "But since you humans have no knowledge of the angels that are around you everyday, you assume this 'Slasher' is just some sick person with nothing better to do. But it's not just one Fallen going around killing other Fallens. All fighting styles of angels are basically the same. So everyone of those victims you see may have been killed in the same method, but it's been a different Fallen killing another every time. Make sense?"

It did. I was happy to know what was going on with all those murders, but hated that I couldn't tell anyone about them to shine the light on them. I found myself looking back up at the sky. Seeing it gray 24/7 was starting to get really boring. But with this bond that I now I had with Shun, it'd have to stay that way till I repay my debt or one of us die. I didn't want to die, and I didn't want Shun to die either. _So that only leaves me with repaying my debt._ I thought of another question to ask him. "How exactly do you kill? I know you can't use your hands and inflict that kind of trauma. You had to of had a weapon of some sorts. Right?"

He had started circling the bench I was sitting on, and I felt oddly like I was being stalked. He stopped in front of where I was sitting and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his black jeans. "You're pretty observant. But nonetheless, you're right. We can't do something like that by hand, but we don't have any weapons either. Weapons are forbidden to Fallens." _Then how did they inflict all those slash marks? Those can only be cause by something like a blade. Even I know that._ Shun unfolded his large black wings. The sudden sound startled me, for I still wasn't used to them yet.

He said, "Our wings are our best weapon. What look and feel like regular feathers to you, are actually the equivalent to a sword to us. Once another angel gets sliced by the feathers, it rips them open just like a knife would do you." All of those slash marks in the victims, were caused by their attackers wings. I could help but stand up and place my hand on one. He was right. They felt just like regular feathers to me. But from news reports, I had seen what they could do to another like him. They were warm. Not as warm as they felt when he busted through my window and forced me under the bed to keep me safe, but still warm. He suddenly folded his wings back up and said, "Sorry. Forgot you're not used to them yet."

I felt my face warm up a little. For that little moment, I was completely ok with them. I felt like I should of asked another question. To change the subject. "From stories that I've heard, angels are immortal, right? Since you're a Fallen, did they take that away? Or was the whole immortal thing just smoke and mirrors?" I knew they could die. I had seen them ripped apart on TV. I could see Shun was happy that I was changing the subject. I guess the wing thing a minute ago was a little odd for him as well. I didn't think about it being the first time that a human had touched them either. So maybe it was a little uncomfortable. I felt like I had stepped over my boundaries now.

Shun started to answer my latest question, "Angels are immortal. We can't be killed by the conventional methods you humans use like guns, knives, and so on. But we can die. Only another angel can kill us. Now we do have weapons that can kill us as well, but they have to be made in the Realm of Angels to have any effect. Don't know why thought. It's just always been that way." Thunder then rang out in the distance. I couldn't tell what was storm clouds, and what was the barrier to the Realm of Angels. Shun reached down and grabbed my wrist and tugged on it.

He told me, "Come on. I have to stop by somewhere and talk to a friend real quick." I let him lead me for a few feet before he let go of my wrist and I was walking next to him. He didn't face me when he said, "Listen. When we get to where we're going, I want you to stay right next to me. Do not leave my side. No matter what." He was saying this sternly. Where was he going that involved me having to stay right up under him? We had walked back onto the sidewalk, but it was in a part of town that wasn't safe. It was the part of Bay City that had gone under from all the recent crime. There was something else I noticed about all the people that were standing on the streets; they all had the same eyes.

The Fallens had taken over this part of town. I whispered to Shun, "I don't feel comfortable being here." He stopped walking and faced down a short alleyway. He whispered back to me, "Don't worry. If you stay next to me I promise nothing will happen to you. This will all be over with soon." I took a deep breath and walked with him down the alley. There was a steel door at the very end of it, and Shun knocked on it with the back of his knuckles. A little door slide open, and a set of shocking purple eyes looked through the little window. He asked, "What do you want?" I couldn't tell if that was how he talked or if he was being rude.

Shun's golden eyes were fixed on the ones in the window as he spoke, "I need to speak with Kiba. Is he in?" The little door slide shut, and I heard locks and latches being undone on the other side. The door swung open and the purple eyed Fallen was standing there. He was much bigger than Shun, and all muscle. He had short blond hair that was spiked. "Kiba is in. But make your conversation quick. He has somewhere to go soon." Shun held back onto my wrist and pulled me into the room. Shun turned his head back and told the Fallen that was manning the door, "Don't worry. I won't take long."

_Alice_

The room that was behind that steel door, smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. It was also packed full of Fallens. This was why Shun wanted me to stay close to him. I heard the high pitched shrieks of a girl, and eventually found her. A Fallen had a young woman pinned down on a table and was having his buddies try and tear off her clothes. I hit Shun's arm and told him, "Do something! They're going to rape her!" Shun turned and saw the girl that was being attacked, and turned away and kept on walking. I ran up back with him and asked sternly, "Shun! Why didn't you help her!" He grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me into a hallway where there wasn't anyone else.

He told me harshly, "It's not that I don't want to help her, trust me I do, but I'm outnumbered in here and if I get in their business then I'm as good as dead. If this was happening several months ago then I promise you I would of done something. But not now in this day and age. Now let's hurry up and find who I came here for." I felt like there was a lot more going on here after what Shun had just said. He couldn't of meant he would be outnumbered by that Fallen and his buddies who were raping that girl.

I was sure he could of taken them out easily. But he had said something about it was several months ago. Back then, the crime level was almost nonexistent. I wanted to ask Shun what he meant back there in that hall, but I didn't get the chance when he walked into another room. He popped his head back out and told me, "Stay right here. If something happens, call for me. Don't talk to anyone else either. Got it?"

I nodded my head and leaned against the wall. I heard the shattering of glass, and saw the girl that had been pinned to the table, scrambling around on the floor to get away. Her clothes were ripped up, and you could hear the booming laughter in that room. Tears were streaking down her face and she ran from the building. I felt anger towards Shun. He could of helped her.

Instead he let them do what they wanted and now that girl was probably going to be skrewed up the rest of her life. I clenched my hand into a fist. Although I was angry with Shun, I wanted him back out here with me because I didn't feel safe. Those creeps might of come after me next if they saw I wasn't with somebody. The door opened next to me, and I expected to see Shun walk out. Instead, a brown shaggy haired Fallen with pitch black eyes walked out. _Is this that Kiba character that Shun and that guy at the door were speaking about?_

Shun followed out after him and said, "Thanks, Kiba. I'll have your payment in a week or so." Kiba just waved his hand and kept walking. He had to be no bigger than Shun, but those eyes weren't like most Fallens. The Fallens, all seemed to have stunning colors. "He's a messenger. We get information from him." I knew he didn't seem like the others. We hurried out of the building and back into the streets. It was getting darker now. How long had we been in there? We started to walk away from that part of town, and I instantly felt safer being back in the familiar parts.

I ran in front of Shun and stopped him from walking. I was going to get my answer. "Tell me what you meant be you would of saved her several months ago." Shun stared at me, his eyes narrowed and seemed annoyed. I guessed he wasn't expecting me to be so persistent. "Fine. Several months ago was when the Clan Wars started. Before then all of the Fallens coexisted without any problems. But you had one Fallen who didn't think that was how it should have been. He started to corrupt the minds of all the Fallens, and soon we split into two Clans. Since then, the Clans have been fighting one another. That's also the reason I didn't help that girl. The ones attacking her were an opposing Clan, and most of the ones in that building were with them. If they saw another Clan member was by themselves and interfering with what they were doing, everyone of them in there would of killed me on the spot."

Shun walked around me, and I just stood in the sidewalk frozen. There was probably so much more that I didn't know about what was going on with the Fallens. But I did know that there was surely more that I would find out. I turned around and ran to catch up with Shun. His hair was covering his golden eyes. Apparently those Clan Wars were something that weren't taken lightly.

I knew now, why all the crime increased. The fighting between those Clans had been attributed to gangs fighting. The Fallens weren't killing people as far as I knew. Only other Fallens. Shun looked up into the clouded skies and narrowed his eyes. I tried to find what he was looking at when he sighed. "Let's get you back to Murucho's."

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><p>-yawns- man i'm tired. i think it's time for a nap. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	5. Death's Coming

_Alice_

It was almost dark when we got back to Murucho's. I had no clue what Shun was looking for in the sky earlier, but he didn't seem to want to stay around whatever it was. Dan and the others were sitting around in a sitting area, and talking about something that apparently happened while Shun and I were gone. Dan saw his friend and smiled. "Have fun on your date, buddy?" Shun kept his composure and stalked off into another room. Dan raised and eyebrow and asked me, "What's his damage?"

I didn't really know. Ever since I had made him bring up the topic of the Clan Wars, he had seemed a little sore. Or maybe it was something that Kiba guy had told him. I wasn't really sure. I told Dan, "He's just a little tired. You know how he gets when he's like that." It was a good cover up. Shun always had a temper when he was tired. Dan bought my lie and went back to talking with Murucho. Runo walked over to me. "Alice, can I talk with you in the hall?" I blinked my eyes. I wasn't expecting her to pull me away from the others. I nodded my head. There wasn't much point in trying to argue with Runo.

"What did you want to tell me, Runo?" She was looking around corners and checking rooms. I knew what she was looking for too. Runo was making sure Shun wasn't anywhere near to hear our conversation. In other words, this was about him. "Alice, you know you're my friend and that I care about you." Yep. It was about Shun. I placed my hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile. "Runo, I already know where this is going." She sighed and took my hand from her shoulder.

"If you know where this is going then you know I just want you to be careful around him. I know that I can't keep you from seeing or talking to him, but I can try and make sure you're safe. Will you at least promise me that?" I nodded and Runo gave me one last look before she walked back to where the others were still seating. "Well, I see where Runo stands in this."

I jumped and turned around to see Shun leaning against the wall. I placed my hand over my racing heart and sighed. "She's just concerned about me. She doesn't know that you wouldn't do anything to harm me." He told me in return, "You're lucky to have friends that care about you like that." I smiled. I was lucky. Shun smiled and walked off back in the direction of his room.

_Shun_

Night was falling, and that gave me the opportunity to stretch my wings and get some air. I was standing up on the roof of Murucho's mansion, and stared up at the barrier. I sighed. There was nothing up there for me or anyone else down here. "What brings you out on this fine night?" I smiled and turned around. Standing there with her arms crossed and hip sticking out, was Lucy.

"The same thing that brought you out here." She laughed. Her long gray hair had gotten longer last time I had seen it, and she had put in a long purple streak in one of her bangs. Her eyes matched the shade of her gray hair perfectly. She asked me, "You talk to Kiba today?" Nothing stayed a secret long amongst the Fallens. Especially within a Clan. "Yeah, but I didn't have a chance to ask him everything." Kiba, was an information port for us Fallens down here. He was on neither side of the Clans, nor that of the Holy angels. He was his own boss. And even though that was a great risk to take, there wasn't anything that anyone could do to him. He was lucky though. Very seldom were Messenger angels born.

But when they were, they had the power to choose what they wanted to do. Many stayed up in the Holy Lands to live the high life, but Kiba wanted to stay down here on Earth. He said that it was more interesting down here with the Fallens, especially with the Clan Wars going on. Many of us Fallens, envied Kiba for having the choice of where to go and the immunity to being punished. "Well, I'm going to the woods to train. You're more than welcome to come with me, Shun." I turned down Lucy's offer and watched as her wings unfolded and she took off into the night. Lucy. She was one of the few allies I had.

I remembered when she told me how she Fell. She did one of the most minor crimes in the Realm of Angels. Lucy had left the Realm without permission from our Higher Powers. In the Realm, little things could make you Fall, and the chances of being Forgiven were very rare. I almost wanted to chase after Lucy. It had been a while since I had seen her. I'd find her another day.

I unfolded my wings and let the lite breeze flow through the feathers. I stood on the edge of the roof, and stared down at the ground. It didn't matter if somebody was outside and looked up at where I was standing. We camouflage ourselves with the night so we can fly without being noticed.

I was over the city now, and saw many of my fellow Clan mates. They were making rounds just like I was. No other Fallens from our enemy Clan were out from what I could tell. There wouldn't be any blood spilt tonight.

_Alice_

I had stayed up late that night. I had followed Shun after he walked off towards his room. He had gone up to the roof instead. I was peering out of the door and saw he was looking out over the city, when another Fallen landed behind him. I thought for a moment that she was going to fight him, but easily figured out they were on the same side. They both were talking about that Kiba guy.

What was so special about him? It seemed like everyone knew about him. I was standing up on the roof, not far from where Shun took off from. There was a light breeze flowing thought the air. It was a really nice night. At that moment, I wished that I had a set of wings of my own and could fly around in the cool night air. I saw something flying my way, and I thought for a moment it was Shun.

I realized it was that Lucy girl when her body tumbled onto the roof and slid right in front of my feet. Her skin was cut up, and blood poured from the wounds. She weakly tried to pushed herself up with her hands, but it seemed her broken, blood-soaked wings were weighing her down. She looked up at me. "You….You can see me…..That means….You're a Bondage…."

She coughed when she tried to get more air. I bent down next to her and asked, "What happened? Who did this to you?" She mustn't of heard what I had asked her cause she told me, "Tell Shun…That Tristan is coming this way….." She finally got to her feet, and wobbled back and forth when she did. Lucy began to stumble towards the edge of the roof. "Wait! You're hurt! You shouldn't fly!" She was about to jump when she fell to her knees. I rushed to Lucy's side and propped her against an AC unit. "So…..You're Shun's Bondage huh?….I'm sure he hasn't told you how he Fell." She knew how he Fell?"

Lucy smiled through her heaving breaths. "You have…..Every right to know how he Fell….You wanna?" Shun had told me it was personal territory when I had asked him, but I did want to know. What had Shun done that put him where he was today? I nodded my head. Lucy laughed. "Shun never did anything…His parents did…They helped stage a rebellion against the Higher Powers…..And they ran to Earth when the rebellion failed…..But the Hunters found them easily and killed them….But since Shun never did anything with the rebellion, his punishment was to Fall…..So far, he's been the youngest to Fall as an innocent."

Blood started to pour from her mouth. "I have to go….And tell the rest of my Clan about Tristan…..Don't mention what I just told you about Shun…..But do remember to tell him about Tristan." She wobbled to her feet and stumbled her way back to the edge of the roof. I yelled out for her to not jump, but she did. Lucy almost hit the ground, but took flight the last second. It was sad watching her try and stay in flight. Soon, she vanished into the night sky. I looked up into the sky.

Shun never mentioned something about a rebellion. Maybe it was just so long ago that he didn't think of it as any importance. I felt truly sorry for Shun. I understood the punishing of his parents, even though it was harsh, but making Shun Fall even though he played no part in the rebellion was just wrong. Shun was young and couldn't of done anything or known what was going on.

I thought back to Lucy. Had she died yet? Or was she still going on to complete her goal? This time when I saw something coming my way, I knew it was Shun. I reminded myself to not allow him to know that I was aware of what happened to his parents and how he Fell.

He landed on the roof and immediately saw the blood on the roof. "What went on up here?" He folded his wings away and I told him, "Lucy came back by here and was in pretty rough shape. She wanted me to tell you that Tristan was coming this way."

_Shun_

"That bastard!" My anger directed my fist right into the metal of an AC unit. The metal bent from the force. He hurt Lucy. That was her blood on the roof, and it made me sick t look at it. She was probably off somewhere dying right now, but I knew what she had done. After she told Alice, she flew off to tell the others in the Clan about Tristan. Alice slowly walked up to me and asked, "Shun, who was she talking about?" I didn't want his name to come out of my mouth, but it did.

"Tristan, is the one who started the Clan Wars, and is the leader of the Clan we're warring against. He's the cause of all of this." Last time anyone had seen him, he took a troop off towards a nearby town to recruit more in his Clan. By force of course. He had only taken about two or three Fallens with him, and Lucy should have been able to taken care of them.

That only meant he had succeeded in his recruiting. Now he was heading right for us, and an all out war was going to begin. The Clan Wars had been nothing more than a kill here and there, but now it was going to be massive bloodshed. It wouldn't stop till every Clan member from one Clan, was dead. We had to stop this before it began. But how? We were outnumbered even greater now.

I growled. I couldn't figure this out on my own. I needed to try and round up the rest of the Clan as soon as possible. I didn't want to leave Alice here with Tristan and his additions heading this way. I took her hand in mine. "Come on. It's not safe here for you."

Tristan and I had always feuded before and during the Clan Wars, and if he saw that Alice was bonded with me, he wouldn't hesitate to kill her. "Shun, where are you going to go? And what about the others?" I unfolded my wings and held Alice tightly next to me.

"Don't worry about where we're going. Trust me, the others are a lot safer than you when Tristan comes this way. Now hold on." I leaped from the roof again, and Alice screamed. I could feel her body was tense, and after a few minutes in the air she started to calm down. It was harder for me to fly with carrying her extra weight, but I managed. I looked down and saw Lucy's body laying in the street, and several of my Clan mates were around her.

I sat Alice down on the ground before my own feet touched it. When they did, I rushed over to Lucy's body. Mason, a white haired Fallen with ice blue eyes, told me, "She collapsed shortly after telling us about Tristan. I honestly don't think she's going to last much longer."

I saw her chest was still moving. All over her, were deep and fatal wounds. They weren't like anything most angels could inflict. Tristan had found a new method to killing, and it was much worse than anything our wings could do. He couldn't of had any weapons since once they touch the hands of a Fallen they no longer have the effect of killing. Whatever he had found, he had made sure Lucy was alive long enough to give us a preview.

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><p>well, i cant think of nothing other than i'm hungry. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	6. Safeguard

_Shun_

I couldn't take my gaze from Lucy's lifeless body. Nobody knew where we went when we died. We all just left that topic alone, but it irked me to not know. I would have been satisfied with even a made up place as long as I could say we went there. _Soon these streets are going to be flooded with bodies like Lucy's._ "Mason, I want you to take a small group of Fallens with you North of the city until you see Tristan. Don't let him see you though. When you find him, hurry back and give us as much information as you can on who he has brought with him. Got it?"

Mason looked at me and nodded his head. He walked off into the dark street to round up more from our Clan. It wouldn't take him long to find four or five Fallens that are more than willing to help find Tristan. Since Tristan was the cause of so many lives to be uprooted with no cause.

I could guess the limits of the bloody fight that would take place soon. It most likely wouldn't leave the city until he had killed every last Fallen in my Clan. I had forgotten about Alice standing behind me, and didn't think to fold my wings back. I felt a small hand touch my shoulder, and I turned to see Alice looking at me with her brown eyes.

She told me, "If there's anything I can do, don't hesitate to ask me to do it." I marveled her bravery and spunk, but there was no way I could allow her to enter into this war. I had already put her in the line of fire just by making her a Bondage. This was the last thing I wanted her to get involved with. "Thank you for your offer, but this is something that's just too dangerous for a mortal to get involved with. There's no point in putting a human in danger when it's between us."

She looked down at the ground. Her head then came back up and she was looking in my eyes. Determination was burning in hers. "But I'm not just another human. Remember? You said there was something special about me. And besides I'm a Bondage. And not just any Bondage, your Bondage."

I couldn't help but mimic her smile of pride. "I'm not going to convince you to sit this fight out, am I?" She had her head held high when she said, "Nope. No chance." There was something different about her.

_Alice_

I felt like I had firmly made my point to Shun that I wasn't about to back out of this after being told and learning about this world that hid under ours. Shun stopped smiling and his face went back to a serious expression as he stared off in the direction that Mason ran off in. "It'll take Tristan a while to get here anyway. We might as well round up as many Fallens as we can and rest up before he does get here." The two Fallens that had stayed behind with us and Lucy's body, nodded their heads and picked up the body.

They seemed to of done this before, because it wasn't phasing them as all. One of them, had a light blue tinted hair color, but I couldn't see his eye color. The other had dark red hair and dark green eyes. He was probably the most normal looking Fallen next to Shun that I had seen in a while. As we were walking towards an old tenement building, I tried to remember if their names had been mentioned at all. I thought at one point I heard Mason call the blue haired Fallen Blakely and the red haired one Nathan.

They were skinny and tall, and didn't look like fighters. Unlike Shun and Mason, who seemed like they had been in a brawl or two. The tenement, was made entirely of brick, and looked abandoned with its boarded up windows. I leaned over to Shun and asked, "Are you sure anyone is in there?" Nathan and Blakely still held onto Lucy's body as they pushed open the door with their feet.

The door had looked locked tight, but it must have been a trick. That made me think the rest of the building was designed to look that way as well. The inside wasn't in the best condition with its spider webs hanging from corners and dust caking the walls. Shun told Blakely and Nathan, "Take her up to Bertha. She'll take it from there." The two boys nodded their heads and took the limp body up a flight of raggedy looking stairs that creaked with every step. I asked Shun, "What is this place?"

He started to walk into another room, and when I followed I saw it was a kitchen. The wallpaper was peeling away, but all of the appliances were brand new. "It's a hideaway I guess you could call it. A place for our Clan to hide out and rest if we need to. Most of the Clan lives here anyway despite the conditions."

_S__o that's why he came here. All of the others are here already and it'll be easier for him to round them up._ Shun reached into a cabinet and pulled out a coffee mug. "You want some?" He was pointed to a coffee pot filled with steaming hot coffee. I shook my head. "I'm not big for coffee. It's too bitter for my taste." He shrugged his shoulders and poured the liquid into his cup. Steam rose from the top and he slowly took a sip. I noticed a white rose placed in a vase with water at the bottom.

But it wasn't like any rose I had seen. It had what looked like red paint dripped on it and the tips of the petals were stained red. I asked, "What's up with the rose?" Shun turned and looked at the flower and put his cup down. "It's a Blood Rose. The symbol of our Clan." When I looked closer, the red did look like blood had been dripped on the flower. I put my nose to it. The rose didn't smell like a rose. It was sweeter and stronger. "How come I've never seen this kind of flower before?"

Shun rinsed his cup out in the sink and told me, "Humans can't see flowers from the Realm of Angels. And you've got to remember, you can see things from there." It was pretty though. The petals were soft like that of a regular rose, and the stem had red tipped thorns that looked like they had just pricked somebody and had blood on them. "If this is the symbol for your Clan, then what about the other one?" Shun held up his index finger, signaling me to hold on for a second. He ran into another room, leaving me in the kitchen.

When he came back, he held a book in his hands. It wasn't even an inch thick. Shun opened the cover and dust floated from the pages. On the very first page, was a black iris. "This is their symbol." Now I had seen black irises before. "But we have those here on Earth. They're not anything that belong to the angels." I looked on the spine of the book and saw it was a book of flowers. Shun closed the book shut, and a cloud of dust came up. "Exactly. They chose a flower from Earth as an act of rebellion to the Realm of Angels. When Tristan started to make his Clan, not only had he gathered some of the strongest Fallens around, he also gathered the ones with pure hatred for the Realm. All because they made them Fall when they deserved it. We on the other hand, Fell for minor causes and still consider ourselves as part of the Realm. Even though we may never go back there again."

_Even after they were seen as disgraces, they still consider the Realm their home._ I placed my hand on Shun's and said, "Kind of like they did to you." His eyes widened and he looked at me. "How do you know what they did to me?" I smiled slightly and said, "Lucy told me." Shun was smiling a sad smiled and looked up at the dusty ceiling. "Lucy….She never could keep her mouth shut."

I saw a tear roll out of his eyes. I didn't know if it was from the loss of his friend, or from how he Fell. Somebody was coming down the stairs, and Shun quickly wiped away the one tear stain on his cheek. A gray haired elderly lady that was wearing a thick tan coat had just stepped off the last stair. Shun tried to make his voice sound sturdy. "Hello, Bertha." I took a good look at her. _Her eyes are normal. She's human._ She smiled. "Hello, Shun. I'm sorry about Lucy." _Can she see their eyes and wings like I can? _

I stood up and cleared my throat, "Um, can I ask you something ma'am?" She looked me over just as I had her. "Go ahead child." Shun was looking at me and wondering what I was going to ask. "Are you a Bondage like me? Can you see what they really look like? Or do you just know about them?" Her wrinkled face smiled and she turned to Shun and said to him, "So this is your Bondage. She's some kind of something." I felt like I was blushing, and Shun was.

He nodded his head and told me, "Bertha is one of the last few people that were first chosen to be a Caretaker for Fallens. More won't be picked until that group is all gone. She was given the ability to see us without a Bond." I thought about how many Fallens she must of seen and taken care of. "Thank you, Shun. I couldn't of said it any better myself. How about you take our guest upstairs and introduce her to the rest?" Shun stood up from the table and held the flower book in his hand.

"Ok. I need to speak with them anyway." He stopped by a small bookshelf and slid the book into a small opening before he walked up the stairs. I wasn't so easy when I walked up them. I was afraid that they would break under me. When I finally made it up to the top, I still wasn't too sure about my footing. The floor under me was bending slightly. I kept reminding myself that Shun weighed more than me, and if it hadn't broken under him, then it wouldn't break under me. Shun turned into a room, and I followed him.

There were several new couches placed around, and every one of them were filled with a body sitting in them. There had to be eight or ten people in the room minus Shun and I. Shun waved out his hand to them, and said to me, "Alice, these are my Clan mates." I found Nathan and Blakely easily among the crowd, but that was all I knew. Shun started to point them out one at a time.

A smoky haired girl with orange eyes was named Fiona. Another girl named Serenity had platinum blonde hair and white eyes. _That's kind of creepy. _Shun then pointed to a guy who had hair about the same color as his and brown eyes that went by the name Thatch.

He finished up telling the rest of the Fallens names and introduced me. "Ok. Now that everyone knows everyone, let's get down to what's really important. Tristan is on his way here right now as we speak, but after seeing Lucy I'm sure most of you figured that out. We need to work quickly and get the rest of the Clan here as soon as possible. We don't have any more time to waste to get this done. In a little while, Mason will be back and have some information about Tristan, but we won't have much time to react after that." I felt like I was watching a military plan coming together.

Somebody in the back of the room raised up there hand. A dark brunette with hazel eyes stood up. _I think Shun said her name was Ebony._ "I hate to sound negative, Shun. But Tristan kicked our asses when the Clans started to form. And his Clan has been doing it on a daily basis while he's been gone. So what makes you think that we stand a chance against him now if his Clan and power has grown?"

Shun sighed and said, "We can only just give it all we have. Now, decide among yourselves and make a group of four and choose one to cover the North, East, South, and West. The one assigned to that cardinal direction will have to round up other Clan members of ours in that area and return back to here. This has to be done before daybreak. Understood?" They all nodded their heads and Shun walked out of the room. I chased after him. _None of them argued with him. They all listened without adding in a single word._

I asked Shun, "How did you get them to listen to you like that?" He turned into a storage room and moved some boxes. Behind them, was an iron ladder with a door on the ceiling. He told me while moving one more box, "They have to listen to their Clan leader." Now it made sense to me why they didn't hesitate his orders. Shun had climbed halfway up the ladder and held out his hand to me.

"You gunna come on up or just stand there?" I took his hand and climbed up the last rungs on the ladder. It was still pitch black outside, and the only light given to us was from a dim streetlight. The wind had picked up outside since the last time we were out. And I had no jacket. I was looking out into the main part of the city and shivering, when I felt something wrap around me.

I looked down to see a pair of black wings around my body. I turned my head around and found Shun's face. He noticed I was looking at him and blushed. "Uh. You looked cold." I smiled and looked back out into the city. I was warmer now though. "Thanks. I was a little chilly." I wasn't uncomfortable about the wings anymore. Actually, I thought I may have been uncomfortable if I didn't see them now.

I could feel Shun's breath behind me, and then a set of lips on my neck. My face heated up with blush, but I didn't stop him. I wanted this to happen for such a long time, and I wasn't about to let this moment slip away from me.

I turned the front of my body around in his wings, and placed my hands on his chest. Our lips then met almost immediately when I turned around. It was as if electricity went through me, and I didn't want this to end. But I knew it had to.

* * *

><p>aw. touching moment that was sadly crushed by reality. -sad face- but nonetheless, touching. sorry for being a tad late. Just took my time with this. i felt like i rushed into the war too quickly so i'm trying to span out the time before the fight. well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	7. Confrontation

_Shun_

I was sure we would of never broken that kiss, but we had to come up for air eventually. Alice was still wrapped in my wings when I felt a slight temperature drop. It wasn't a natural drop either. I told Alice, "How about you go on back inside? I'll be back in there in a few minutes." She raised an eyebrow at me and questioned my request with her eyes. I told her half honestly, "I just thought I heard something and I was going to make sure and didn't want you to get hurt." It wasn't all a lie. She nodded her head and went back down the little hatch in the roof. Behind me, was a slow, sarcastic clapping.

I turned around and saw Kiba. He had his overly cocky grin on his face when he said, "Bravo, Shun. That was a truly spectacular show I just witnessed. It's a shame though that the most important Fallen to the Blood Rose Clan is falling in love with a human." He walked around me and made me feel like I was being hunted. I said through gritted teeth, "I'm not falling in love with her." Kiba threw his head back and laughed. _Messenger angels….Con-artists of the Realm and Earth…_

"Don't you mean you can't be falling in love with her, Shun?" There wasn't any sneaking something past a Messenger. They did know everything about everyone. It would be almost stalker like in a sense in they weren't vital to Fallens and Holy angels. _Wait. They know everything. _"Kiba, what information do you have on Tristan?" He smiled again. It burned me when he did that.

It usually meant he knew something, but wouldn't let it slip without a price. "Now if I told you what I knew, it would spoil the fun of the surprise and nobody would have a show to watch." I found myself right in front of his and picked him up from the ground by the collar of his shirt. He just kept smiling and looking at me with those endless black eyes.

I growled my words, "Do you think this is some kind of game cause you're not involved in this fight?" Kiba chuckled at me. I didn't think he was any position to be finding this amusing since his feet weren't even touching the ground. "Yes, I do think of all of this as a game. A very predictable game and everyone are simple pawns in it. To show you how predictable you are, I'll let you know you're going to be on the ground soon."

I raised an eyebrow. _What? How will I be on the ground?_ I wasn't paying attention when he lifted his feet and kicked me in the stomach, causing me to slide backwards on the roof. He did a back flip and landed square on his feet while I was trying to get my breath back. I felt vulnerable. I had heard rumors from other Fallens that Messengers had entirely different fighting styles from other angels and were much stronger. I didn't believe any of that. I always assumed that we all had similar styles of combat.

Why did they get all of these perks? I didn't want to test those rumors anymore. The last thing I needed was to get my ass kicked before going into battle. I got up to my feet, but wasn't quite able to stand straight yet. Kiba turned around and walked over to the ledge of the roof. His wings unfolded and the feathers moved in the wind. Yet another thing that separated the Messengers from other angels were their wings; they were gray as a symbol that they were with neither the Holy angels or Fallens. Kiba turned his head back to me and said, "I'm well aware that you want your Bondage to stay here so she'll be safe, but you need to take her into battle with you. She's what will determine how you fare against Tristan."

Kiba took off into the sky and left me with his words and footprint on my stomach. What could Alice do that would determine if I beat Tristan or not? It wasn't like she had any fighting skills or knowledge of battle like we did. She may not be like most humans I had met, but she had the same limits as them. I was still stuck in a question mark shape as I made my way back to the hatch.

Alice was probably getting worried because I had spent so much time up here. I carefully went back down the rungs of the ladder, and put the boxes in the storage room back to where they were. When I was back in the hallway, I heard meticulously placed notes on a piano. They were slightly out of tune, but the song sounded fine. It had been years since I had heard anyone touch the piano downstairs in the den of the old tenement building. I followed the sound of notes, and found Alice sitting down at the bench of the piano and reading the sheet music that had been left on the little holder.

Bertha was in the room with her along with a few other of the Fallens that I had left upstairs. I walked up behind her and looked to see what she was playing. What was on the paper and what she was playing on the keys weren't the same thing, but it sounded familiar to me. She played the last few notes of the song, and stood from the bench and bumped into me when she turned around to walk away. She shook her head and realized it was me.

"Oh. Shun, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. Was everything clear on the roof?" Now that Alice had finished playing, the rest of my Clan mates were walking off into another room or back upstairs. Only Bertha stayed with me and Alice. "Yeah. It must of only been a bird or something. Guess all of this war stuff has got me paranoid. Hey, I didn't know you could play piano. What were you playing?"

She turned back to the piano and said, "I'm not sure what it's called, but I've known it ever since I was little. I guess my grandfather or parents taught me it when I was younger." It just sounded so familiar to me. There was no telling where I may of heard the song, and trying to figure it out wasn't what was important at the moment.

Alice was staring right at me and said, "Are you sure it was just a bird up there? Cause your face is red like you've been out of breath recently." I looked over to Bertha and she plainly knew there was no bird involved whatsoever. I sighed and told Alice, "Kiba showed up on the roof and we kind of got into a little disagreement." Bertha's eyes grew wide. Just cause she knew that something had happened on the roof, didn't mean she knew with who.

She took a step towards me and said, "Shun, don't you know Messenger angels aren't ones to be taken lightly?" _I know that now._ Bertha was shaking her head like I should of known better. Alice was looking at me with concern in her eyes. "Where did he hurt you?" Bertha was still shaking her head when she walked out of the room and into the kitchen. I remembered that Alice was waiting for me to tell her where I was injured. "Oh. Uh, he just kicked me in the stomach. Nothing too serious."

I didn't have time to react when she grabbed the end of my shirt and asked, "Is it ok if I see where he kicked you?" I blinked in surprise. That was the last thing I was expecting her to ask. I thought she might of gotten angry at Kiba for kicking me, but she was concerned with my injury. "Uh, I don't mind." I blushed as she lifted my shirt up and looked at my abdomen. I was surprised to see a large bruise on me. _I didn't think he kicked me that hard._

Alice touched the bruise lightly and said, "I know of a little trick that can make this unsightly thing go away in a few hours." I didn't care if it stayed or left, but it seemed like Alice wanted to tend to my wounds. "What is it?" She rolled my shirt back down and stood up straight. "Toothpaste. It takes away hickies, and a hicky is basically a bruise. So it should take this right out."

I raised an eyebrow at her. Not because it was a weird and questionable piece of information, but because she had acquired it. "And you know this how?" She straightened her shirt from where it had ruffled up when she bent over to look at my bruise. "Runo had to get rid of a hicky quickly one day and I saw her putting the toothpaste on her neck and asked her what she was doing. She had explained it to me. I didn't believe her at first till I saw it gone before her parents got home."

Now it made sense how she knew. Alice had a mischievous grin on her face and said, "Why, did I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice when you asked me how I knew? I think I did." I felt my face heat up with a blush. "I was not jealous. I was just curious."

Ok. I was jealous. Alice rolled her eyes and saw I was lying through my teeth when I said that. Did I really want to risk her life just cause of something Kiba had told me? Was it worth it? No, it wasn't worth the chance of losing her just cause it may determine whether I could beat Tristan or not. I had enough faith in myself and my Clan that we could take him down on our own.

The front door of the building opened and the four Clan mates that had gone out into the city to round up the rest had finally made it back. There weren't as many as I expected. Last time I had checked, our Clan was over fifty and strong. In the building we had to of had maybe a little over twenty. I asked Thatch, "Where's the rest of the Clan?" The ones they had brought back with them, didn't look too enthusiastic or rearing for a fight like usual.

Thatch told me, "Tristan had somehow sent out a message to his Clan mates in the city to kill any of our own on site. This is all that made it." He had knocked our Clan from fifty and a chance of winning, to twenty and a snowball's chance in Hell. I sighed. Now wasn't the time to be showing my emotions to the others. As the leader, it was my job to show the strength. And if they saw that I didn't have as much hope now, then we'd lose for sure. I started counting all of the Clan we had with us.

Counting myself, we had twenty-three. _And Tristan has how many? Like a hundred?_ Mason then walked through the door with another Clan mate. They both were panting hard. Mason, the second in command, said to me, "We found Tristan and flew back here as fast as we could. He's brought with him at least forty or fifty Fallens. And they had weapons." Weapons? But weapons from the Holy Lands didn't work for us, and human weapons didn't harm us either.

I asked him, "What's he think weapons are going to do for him?" Mason was still panting, and his white hair dripped with sweat. He told me, "They're made from angel wings from some underground forger. Apparently they ripped the wings from any angels they've killed and taken them to that forger. And since they're made here on Earth, they work on us."

I thought about Tristan and his army mowing us down without breaking a sweat. It would truly be a miracle if we even took out a fourth of his new Clan. I was certain now. There was no way I was letting Alice step foot out into those streets when Tristan arrived.

_Alice_

This was it? This was all of the Clan that Shun had now? And according to Mason, Tristan's Clan had increased by maybe fifty. And there was no telling how large his Clan here in the city was. Shun was seriously stuck between a rock and a hard place. Fiona stepped through the crowd of Fallens that were circled around Shun and were waiting to received his orders.

She asked him, "What do we do? There's no way we can beat Tristan. Not with our Clan hurting this badly." Somebody in the back suggested that they run. While another suggested joining their Clan. Shun yelled out over the chatting Clan. "Shut up! There won't be any running or joining up with them! Got it!"

The room was dead silent. The Clan acted as if they had never seen this side of Shun before. I knew I sure hadn't. Even Bertha, who was standing in the door of the kitchen, looked surprised.

Shun's hands were clenched in fists and he said somberly, "I'm going to challenge Tristan directly. I'll make the stipulations to where his Clan can't attack us unless I go down. And if I do, you all have to be ready for a fight from Hell. Let's just hope I can win so that won't have to happen."

* * *

><p>eck. i feel bleh. -.-'' very bleh. i picked a heck of a time to possibly be getting sick. x.x -dies- well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	8. Crossing The Line

_Shun_

I had sent out Mason and Thatch to find Tristan again and tell him my offer on our one on one fight. I knew that if I got Tristan out of the way, that his Clan would break apart and wouldn't be much of a threat to us then. I just hoped the Tristan didn't kill those two. They were vital to our Clan. I waited outside for them to return. I had made sure I was clear on my rules for my offer; no Clan goes into battle until one of us can no longer fight, the fight takes place in the woods outside of the city limits, and it had to be one on one with no outer interference.

But there wouldn't be anything from stopping Tristan from doing any of that. It wasn't like we'd have a referee out there with us. Alice walked out from and the tenement building and stood next to me. "Shun, I know you're getting tired of me asking this, but are you sure you want to do this? What if Tristan wins? Your Clan needs you to continue leading them through this."

I looked up into the sky and saw an airplane flying lower than it should have been, but I saw why it was like it was. There were storm clouds where he should have been flying, and from the looks of them, they were going to bring in a bad storm. I felt the hairs on the nape of my neck prickle at the feeling of the oncoming storm. I sighed and told Alice, "I'm sure that this is what I have to do. And if Tristan does win, then we're in big trouble. But I want you to promise me that if I don't beat him, that you'll get as far away from this place as possible. Cause I don't know what he'll do to humans when he finishes off my Clan. Get Dan and the others out of here too."

I thought back to what Kiba had told me earlier. It kept gnawing at me that I should bring her with me, but my instincts told me otherwise. Part of me was arguing that Kiba is never wrong and I should listen to him, but the part of me that cared for Alice was telling me no and that he was wrong. The air was growing more ominous every second. It only added to the sense of something bad coming our way.

The wind was stronger now too, and easily bent the thin trees that were planted in the and around the sidewalk. Alice was quiet after I had told her to get out of the city if I did lose. I turned and saw she was gliding her foot along the concrete and making tiny rocks skip a few inches. I instantly felt bad. I must of sounded so negative to her. Like I had no faith in myself and the others like I did earlier.

It was true though. When I thought we still had fifty Clan members, I was sure we had a chance. But after hearing how half of them had been brutally killed, I wasn't so optimistic. Anyone could of looked at the statistics of each Clan and told you Tristan's stood a higher chance of kicking our asses. I was just about to say something to Alice, when I heard Mason and Thatch's wings approaching us. _Tristan spared them. That's good._ They landed in front of me and Alice, and didn't have a scratch on them. Another good sign.

I asked, "What did he say? Did he agree?" Thatch, who was panting from the flight back, walked into the tenement building behind me and closed the door. Mason didn't seem as worn out as Thatch when he said, "Tristan agreed and said he wants the fight to take place at daybreak. They won't make it to the city till after the fight starts since they're camping out near the fight area." That only gave me a few hours to prep myself physically and mentally for what was ahead of me, but at least I knew that they wouldn't be in the city for a while.

I nodded my head and told Mason, "Ok. Thank you for going out of your way to ask Tristan that. I know you were putting your life on the line by doing so." Mason bowed slightly and walked through the same door as Thatch. I felt a delicate hand touch the back of my arm and turned to see Alice looking at me once more. I tried to give her a reassuring smile to let her know that everything was going to be ok. But Alice was smart enough to see through that without even trying.

"How about we go back inside before the rain hits?" She nodded her head and went through the door first. Apparently Mason and Thatch had told everyone else about Tristan accepting my offer. With all of the somber faces, it felt like I was being sent on a death mission. I probably was, but I had to try and keep my Clan safe. No matter the costs and risks. Alice was near the back of the room talking with Ebony. Alice finished what she was saying to her, and walked in my direction.

I didn't have to be a rocket science to know that they were saying something about me, but I was sure I was the talk of most of the people in the room. She held my gaze and said, "I'm not going to try and stop you from doing this. I've learned that you can be pretty stubborn." I smiled, and she did as well. I held her chin in my thumb and index finger and said, "Kind of like how you can be stubborn?" She playfully hit me in my arm, and for a moment it was like nothing was happening.

That no crazed Fallen and his army were coming to slaughter us all. Like I wasn't possibly going to my death bed by fighting Tristan. And mostly, like this would be the last time I ever saw any of the people in this room. None of that was running through my mind at the few seconds that the two of us were smiling. But it hurt me inside to know that we were only smiling to cover up all of the reality that was setting in. I whispered into her ear, "Go and grab a jacket and meet me on the roof. Kay?"

She nodded her head and I stopped next to Mason and told him, "I'm going to sneak out and make my way to where Tristan and I are going to fight, because I don't want the others to know. Tell them in about ten minutes. That should be plenty of time for me to be gone." Mason nodded his head and walked off into another room. I only wanted one good-bye, and it was going to be with Alice. Not the rest of the Clan. That would take too long.

I made my way upstairs and into the storage room, where I climbed up the ladder and waited on the roof for Alice. The wind was faster now, and carried a deathly chill. _Good thing I told her to get that jacket._ I stared off into the distance where the forest was at. I was looking right at where I would have the fight of my life, and not too far off from there was Tristan's camp. I tired to see if they may of made a fire or something to escape the cold. Alice finally made her way through to hatch in the roof.

She was wearing a jacket that I think belonged to Blakely, but I never kept up with whose clothing was whose. She asked me, "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" We both knew what this was about, so that made it a bit easier. "I'm about to go on and make my way to where Tristan and I are going to fight and didn't want the others to know. Last thing I want to do is face twenty something good-byes when this one is hard enough as it is." The wind blew her hair around and made it look like fire. "Just promise me one thing, Shun. You'll try and come back here." I smiled. "Promise." I placed my lips to hers before I took off into the clouded sky.

_Alice_

How long had he been gone now? Ten? Twenty minutes? It felt like hours to me, and every second I was expecting him to come back even though I knew that the fight wouldn't take place until daybreak. It was antagonizing though. I didn't care that the cold wind was nipping at my face, I was glued to that roof. I felt like I could stay there until I knew the results of who survived what was to come.

I tried squinting my eyes to see if I could make out Shun's figure against the dark night, but it was pointless. He was too far away for my eyes to pick up if anything. The feel of his lips on mine was fading away with time, and I wanted it to stay. At least if he did die, I'd have something to remember how he felt. The streets below the roof started to wake up as early commuters started on their way to work.

They didn't even know what kind of fascinated race was in this building that they believed to be abandoned. I started to wonder, how many people actually believed in angels. I was sure the ones who did, all had the same idea like I had; white robs with white wings and golden halos and glowing auras surrounding their being. That was the stereotyped version when really there were so many different types in different shapes and colors.

Maybe there were some that fit the basic image, and I had yet to learn about them. Perhaps if there were some like that, they were royalty or something like that. I really doubted they were fighters like Shun and the rest of his Clan. I walked to the edge of the roof and sat down next to the little two foot wall, and laid my head down on the cold brick. The surface was rough on the soft skin on the inside of my arm, but as long as I didn't move much it didn't bother me.

I wondered if the others downstairs had discovered that Shun had vanished. I was sure they had. Over beyond the horizon of the city, I saw a faint light illuminating the sky and storm clouds. The sun was rising, and soon the fight would take place.

The very fight that would determine if Shun and his Clan were lost forever, or if they lived. I heard a voice from behind me say, "And now the real test starts. Let the game begin." I turned and saw Kiba standing bedside me and smiling slyly in the direction of the forest. He said again in a hushed voice, "Yes, my pawns. Let the game begin."

_Shun_

The forest was flat and easy to navigate through at early dawn. The rising sun lit up the dark gray rain clouds, and a fog hung low in the trees. I could have been highly vulnerable to anything in the woods looking for me. The dampness in the air clung to my skin and unfolded wings. If I tried to fly, it would be useless since we angels didn't fare well when our wings were wet.

Just like anything with wings. Sticks cracked under my feet whenever I stepped down. I looked around for the clearing that my fight would take place in. I tried to remember what Mason had said the area looked like; a large cleared area of about twenty feet in diameter and covered with grass and had trees and rocks surrounding it. I didn't realize it at first, but I was standing right in the area. When I noticed the rocks, and looked around the rest of my surrounding. The fog had left a fine mist on the grass, and all you could see were the trees that outlined the clearing. A figure started in my direction.

It held an arrogant walk and the closer it got to me I saw large wings. Then the eyes appeared. Glowing blood red with super fine slits down the pupil. So animal like that you might of well kept him locked in a cage. I saw him clearly when he was in my field of vision in the fog. His short brown hair was spiked, and my eyes found the black handle of a sword behind his back. "Hello, Shun." I hated the hubris in his voice so much, that I could of jumped him just for that instead of all the trouble he has caused my Clan. I growled out my words, "Hello, Tristan." As he circled me, I never took my eyes from him.

_Rule one: Never turn your back on your enemy: Successful._ He said, "Long time no see, huh? I'm surprised you recognized me. You on the other hand, haven't changed a bit if I do say so myself." I glared at him, feeling my anger and hatred boil in me. I didn't blame his Clan for harming mine. I blamed him. Everything was fine till he came along and turned into a power hungry monster that wouldn't stop at nothing until he reached his ultimate goal. Whatever that was.

"Why are you doing this? What's you're motive, Tristan?" _Rule two: Know thy enemy: Successful._ He threw his head back and laughed. It bounced off the trees, rocks, and fog and echoed into the far distance. He stopped circling me and said, "Isn't it obvious? We're spitting right in the face of the Realm by doing this. By showing the true power we have. And once we're done with you and gather more Fallens, we're breaking through the barrier and taking over the Realm and rule it like we should. And make them pay for what they did to us."

He was mad. It was such a ludicrous plan. There was no way it would work. I told him, "It's impossible to break the barrier. Even you don't have the power to get through it. You'll only be shot back down to Earth." His eyes flashed at me, and a sly grin slapped on his face again. "I've got weapons that can hurt us on Earth. What makes you think I don't have a way to cross the barrier rule as well?"

The clouds above us started to roar with thunder and were swirling with the wind. The wind picked up and I heard a tree crash down in the distance. I firmly planted my feet on the ground, and cold rain started to pelt down on me and Tristan. There were loud screams coming from the city, and I turned in the direction. Tristan was laughing manically now.

I hissed at him, "What have you done?" His spiked hair was sticking to his face just as mine was, and rain beaded from one of the locks. The ground underneath us had already turned muddy. "Looks like my Clan has found yours." My eyes widened with shock. I yelled at him, "We had an agreement that they wouldn't fight till one of us was dead you bastard!"

I turned back in the direction of the screams, and every instinct I had was telling me to go to them. I felt something slice in to my back and I fell into the muddy ground. _Rule one: Never turn your back on thy enemy: Failed. Rule two: Know thy enemy: Failed. Rule three: Don't become distracted around thy enemy: Failed._

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><p>i think this chapter turned out pretty good. i honestly the fight will be my favorite part to write. ^^ yay! im feeling better! -throws party- there won't be an upload tomorrow for i have a band clinic and won't get back to the school till late late late. so wish me luck on my auditions. ^^ well, read, review, and other things! ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	9. Recovery

_Alice_

Kiba turned his head and looked down at me with his black eyes and grinned slyly. Before I could say anything, I heard screams down the street. I quickly stood onto my feet and looked out over the street. It was Blakely. His arms and legs were slashed up and pouring blood, and he was being pursued by several more Fallens. Blakely feel to the ground, and his assailants jumped on his like a pack of wild animals. I could make out his pleas for mercy, but after a few more seconds he wasn't saying anything else.

While I was staring down in horror, I saw one starting to glance up in my direction on the roof. I quickly dropped down to the flat surface of the roof and made sure no part of me could be seen. Kiba had vanished sometime during the chaos. The savagery down below had scared me and my hands were shaking. What if they flew up here and saw me?

I'd be as good as dead. I remembered the instructions Shun gave me before he left. I had to get as far away from this place as I could and get Dan and the others if possible. But first I had to get off the roof without being spotted from above or below. I crawled on my hands and knees and made my way to the hatch in the roof. Once inside the storage room, I ran down the stairs and found Shun's Clan and Bertha all huddled together. Thatch's voice was booming over everyone else's as he gathered their attention.

"Guys, we cant hide here forever. They'll figure out soon enough that we're in here since they just got Blakely." _So they saw him get ripped to shreds too._ Something was tapping on my shoulder and I turned to see Mason standing behind me. "Can I speak to you in the other room, Alice?"

I followed behind him and now we were in another sitting room that the tenement building had. He said to me, "I know that Tristan didn't kill Shun. At least not that quickly. Odds are he went against his word and sent his Clan here anyway. We need to find him."

I figured out that much. About Shun not being dead yet. I asked Mason, "Do you really think he's still alive." I was usually the optimistic one, but right then I was becoming really doubtful. Mason looked up at the ceiling as if thinking about my question.

He sighed. "He might still be, but if we keep standing around here we're only wasting time." I nodded and snuck out through the back down with him. He told me before he shut the door, "I hope they can hold off till we get back."

_Shun_

My back burned with pain. Had he cut through my spine? No, I could still feel my arms and legs. I tried to stand up on my hands and knees, but they started to shake and I fell back onto the muddy grass. The rain was still pouring where I was, but I didn't know about in the city.

I turned my head and looked up and saw Tristan looking down at me and grinning. In his hand was a solid black sword that was dripping with my blood. He turned it sideways and swung it into my ribs like a baseball bat. Tristan was truly being relentless. More than I remembered. While I was laying on my side and clutching my newly injured ribs, he listed his foot up and stomped it into my stomach.

Causing me to lose my breath. I found enough strength in me to get onto my hands and knees, and I looked up at him. The trees behind him bent with the wind and rain. Tristan threw his head back and laughed. "Oh, how the might have fallen. Twice at that!"

I glared my eyes up at him and panted. I knew he could of killed me the minute he sliced into my back, but he hadn't. Tristan was torturing me. Making the last few hours I had left a living hell. His demeanor turned from that smile to a scowl.

"How sad. You look like a beaten down dog with nothing left to live for. You've failed your Clan, yourself, and don't forget about your little Bondage. Alice was her name, I think." He lifted up the black sword and pointed it right at my face. Rain washed away my blood from the blade, only for in a few minutes it to be covered once more. He drew the sword back, and I braced myself for the blade to hit me.

_Alice_

Mason and I were running as fast as we could. It was too risky to fly, so both of us had on black hoodies to keep ourselves hidden from any of Tristan's Clan that may have been flying overhead. It was a good thing we did have them on because the further we got from the city the harder the rain was and the colder the air got. I found it odd that no people were out on the streets.

It was like since Tristan had made his grand return, the world had stopped moving. Mason and I started running through some of the not so dense part of the forest the Shun was in. The ground was muddy and we occasionally slipped in the wet ground. Mason said to me, "I remember what the area looked like when Tristan showed me so I could describe it to Shun." The rain was pelting down on us, and I was wondering how those two could of possibly fought with this much raining down.

Our hoodies were soaking wet, and I was already shaking from the chill in the air. Mason didn't seem phased by the weather like I was. "The clearing is just up ahead if I remember right. I can't really tell with all of this rain and fog." Just as he had said that, the rain started to quiet down, and went from a downpour to a slight drizzle that caught in the tree limbs above our heads. The fog didn't really ease up like the rain did. I looked around at the trees. Everything looked the same against the haze and fog.

"The clearing is right up ahead." We instantly sped up as we approached the area. It was an open area, and laying near the center was Shun. His body was sliced up, beaten, and bruised. Blood was pooling around him and diluting in the wet grass. And he wasn't moving either. Mason and I ran over to him and I knelt down beside Shun. I placed my hand on a part of his shoulder that wasn't injured and shook him gently. I kept whispering into his ear, "Shun. Shun, please wake up."

I hadn't even realized how on the verge of crying I was. Mason was pacing back and forth and running his hands through his hair. Me and him were both on the same page since neither one of us knew what to do. I saw Shun's chest moving up and down. _He's breathing. That's good._ I tried shaking him once more. A small raindrop rolled off of a leaf above us, and landed right on Shun's cheek.

His eyes opened weakly and slowly as he turned to meet my face. Mason saw he was awake, and ran by my side to see his injured leader. Shun winced as he tried to move and he told us, "Tristan…He went back….On his word…." It was taking everything Shun had to get those words out. I took a moment to assess the damage. His arms and legs were heavily cut up, bruises covered parts that weren't cut, and one of his wings seemed to be broken.

Mason was looking over his wounds as well when he said, "He's hurt pretty badly. I see why Tristan didn't kill him cause he knew Shun wouldn't last very long out here without any help. I don't even know if any help will make a difference." I pushed away a wet, blood matted lock of hair from Shun's face. I felt his skin, and it was warm. I told Tristan, "He's running a fever."

It could have been from anything. From being trapped out in this weather and left so weak, or maybe there was an infection starting up from the open wounds being exposed. Shun's breathing was forced and choppy, but he found enough air in him to speak again. "I'm sorry….That I couldn't…Beat him…" I felt tears swell up in my eyes. What would we do with him if we did get him out of the forest? We couldn't take him back to the city where Tristan and his delusional Clan were.

They'd kill Shun on site along with us. Mason was looking over the damage wing. It was bent in an unnatural position and whenever he touched it, Shun would wince from the pain. Mason heaved a sigh. "We may heal quickly, but there's no way he'll heal in time with the extent of these injuries. It might be a waste of time and energy to try and sneak him back into the city to Bertha." I placed my hand on Shun's, and felt the heat of the fever on him. I got an idea and took off the soaked black hoodies and laid it over his body.

It wasn't much warmer with or without it anyway. I was well aware that Mason couldn't blame me for trying to help, so I didn't bother arguing over it with him. I asked Mason, "Could you take off your hoodie and tear off a few pieces of the fabric?" He raised his eyebrow, but did as I asked. He ripped the thick fabric of the hoodie into several large and small pieces and handed them to me.

I looked on Shun to find the worst wounds, and wrapped the hoodie pieces around them. The worst had to be a painful looking gash right on his lower back. I used the largest piece for that wound. There wasn't any guarantee my makeshift bandages would do anything for him, but at least they should of stopped the bleeding. Shun's eyes looked at me and he said, "Thank you, Alice…..Mason…..Get what's left….Of the Clan….And get them out of here…" Mason nodded his head. He knew he had to take Shun's place as leader now since he was the second in command. He asked me, "Come on, Alice. Let's head back…..You coming?"

I nodded my head without looking away from Shun. His wing was bothering me at the moment. I wished there was something I could of done to make the pain more bearable, but that injury was out of my reach of repair. "Yeah. I'll catch up with you in a minute. Just give me a few more seconds. Kay?" Mason in return told me, "I understand. I'll be waiting by that stream we saw on the way here." Looking back at Shun, my mind drifted back to the Bond we shared. Would it be painful when it broke?

Or would everything go back to the way it used to be and leave me blind from this world I had discovered? A tear streaked down my cheek and fell to the ground. I leaned over and placed my lips on Shun's. They were still hot with his fever. I stood up and looked back down at him.

I didn't want to leave him, but like Mason had said, there was no way he'd make it on the trip back to the tenement building. He'd probably not even make it through the forest. Besides, I didn't want to leave Mason waiting forever for me by that stream.

Every minute we spent here, we were wasting time that we could have been getting Shun's Clan away from the city. I suppressed a sob, and turned and walked in the direction of the stream.

_Shun_

So much pain and fatigue, and I had nothing to do with them. I would occasionally find it in me to open my eyes, only to see the storm clouds floating away to deliver rain some place else. I remember Alice and Mason had found me, and tried their best to help me to their best extent before coming to the conclusion that there was no point in trying anymore. But how long ago was it that they had found me? Minutes? Hours? I didn't have any perception of time as I passed in and out of consciousness.

But I did agree with them that I was a lost cause. Even I was aware of the extent of my injuries and how fatal they were. All I had left to do was laying in this clearing and wait for them to finally take me. But I should have been dead a while ago. Why wasn't I? I forced to turn my head and looked at where Alice had tied a hoodie to my arm where a large gash had been. My other arm shakily made it's way over to the makeshift bandage and took it off. The gash had stopped bleeding and was actually healing.

I could feel where more bandages were, and I took them off and positioned my head to where I could see the wounds under them. They all had stopped bleeding and were healing as well. The only one I couldn't see was the one on my back, but I could still feel the deep radiating pain. If Alice hadn't done what she did, I may of died much quicker.

I now stood a chance of making it somewhere safer and getting treatment. I could find a hospital and play it off as a Slasher attack, but they wouldn't be able to see my hurt wing and do anything about it. It was then that I decided to see what state my wing was it. My stiff body slowly sat up, and grass and mud clung to my clothes and skin.

The black hoodie that Alice used as a means to break my fever rolled off. That seemed to of worked as well, although I still thought I felt a little warm myself. I turned to my right wing, and saw it was bent at the top joint that controlled movement. It didn't seem like a normal break. The way it was, there should have been bone sticking out from the black feathers.

I tried to move it and only cried out in pain. It was then, that I figured out it wasn't broken, but dislocated. Something that could easily be fixed, but with much pain in store. Although, when the joint was put back in place, I'd be able to fly if I had enough strength left. I took in a deep breath. Now was the best of any to go ahead and get it out of the way. I turned my body towards the wing, despite the pain from my lower back, and put my hands where the joint was. Just touching it hurt enough on its own, and it made me start to think twice about doing this.

_No. I've got to do this._ I placed a piece of the hoodie cloth in my mouth to give me something to bite down on. _1, 2, 3.…_ I twisted the joints back to where they belonged, and screamed in pain. It was so intense, that tears started to roll down my cheeks. I finally heard a pop, and the pain started to fade. It wasn't entirely gone, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was a second ago.

My mind felt dizzy from where I was close to passing out from the act I had just done. I moved the wing, and saw I had full movement over it. Now I knew that I could fly. If only I had the energy. I'd at least need a days worth of rest or more to even be able to walk, and I didn't have that kind of luxury time. I needed to get back to the others as soon as I could.

Although I wasn't in any condition to fight now. I sighed and looked around the forest. I knew of some small hillsides near where I was and that it had small crevices that people had camped in before. If I could find it, then I could rest there for a little while and get out from the damp air. I tried to get up on my feet, but my legs wobbled and I caught myself on my hands and knees.

There wasn't any way I could walk yet. And I sure knew that I wasn't about to crawl all the way to those caves on my hands and knees. I had more dignity than that. I decided, that I'd try out my repaired wing, and took off just above the tree lines.

Occasionally I'd almost lose control and hit a tree branch, but other than that it was a smooth flight. My eyes found a cave not far from me and I dove for it.

The landing wasn't as smooth as the flight though. I slid on the dry cave floor and skidded to a halt. The ground was cool, but it wasn't wet like outside. It felt good against my warm skin though, and I fell asleep right where I had landed. It never had crossed my mind that in a sense, that Alice had saved my life.

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><p>well, i bombed one of my scales yesterday. -.-'' this turned out much longer that expected. o.o oh well, read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	10. The Bloodbath To Come

_Shun_

Outside of the cave, it was starting to become dawn. I hadn't even realized I had slept the entire night away. My wounds were starting to heal and would form thin pink lines and become scars. It was a good thing they had healed when they did because it had kept the dirt from the cave floor out of them. Although I was still sore, I felt a million times better than I had yesterday, and knew I'd have enough strength to make it back to the city and help what was left of my Clan.

If there were any left for that fact. I made myself stand up on my feet, and didn't fall down like I had earlier. My legs shook ever so slightly under me as they adjusted to weight being put on them once more. The cave around me was very small, and my head almost touched the roof of it. If I was a few inches taller, my hair would graze the roof. I walked to the mouth of the cave and looked up in the sky. The storm clouds were completely gone now, but a chill still clung in the air.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of the cool air. I had so many conflicted thoughts about going back to the others. Even though they were still my Clan, there was slim odds that they were still alive. Maybe a few were left, but that wouldn't last long. No. They were still my Clan, no matter how many were left. And I needed to be in that city with them and fighting Tristan until we couldn't go on anymore. I wanted to kick myself for even thinking about abandoning them.

But there was no way that I could fight them hand to hand, especially since they had those weapons. It would be a waste of time to try and go up against them empty handed. I learned that the hard way with Tristan. I could sneak up behind one of his stray Clan members and steal a weapon, but I'd have to do so without drawing any attention to myself.

I wished I knew who all was left though. I stretched out my wings. Everything still seemed to be fine with them, and that was a good thing since right then they were my best weapon. I realized something. Although Alice had helped save me, I could still feel the Bond we shared.

Which meant two things; she hadn't helped enough to repay the life debt, and she was still alive. And I knew good and well that Alice couldn't of lasted long out there on her own, and that meant that she was with somebody from the Clan who was keeping her safe. I took off into the sky. My Clan was still alive and fighting with everything they had.

_Alice_

My legs burned from all the running, but it was too dangerous to stop. Only a few of Tristan's Clan were on the ground hunting for us, the rest had taken to the air. Thatch had informed us the others of an underground tunnel system that we could use to hide out for a while, but it wouldn't be permanent. Just until we could formulate a plan. Mason flanked my right side while Nathan was to my left and Thatch and the others were all behind me.

We had lost maybe five or six, and they were only stragglers from the groups. Ones that couldn't keep up. Right before us was the whole only the strong survive concept. I didn't know what had happened to Bertha. She hadn't gone with us, but she had left the tenement building at the same time we had. A jolt went through my body, and caused me to stop right in my tracks.

Somebody behind me ran into my back and caused me to stumble forward a bit. Mason stopped running and asked me, "Why did you stop? You know we have to keep moving." I knew I had felt something. Something strong, but I couldn't explain it. "I had felt something like a jolt go through me. Maybe it was faulty wire underground or something." It couldn't of been an electricity malfunction. I had been shocked by faulty wiring before, and that didn't feel like any I had felt before.

It reminded me of when Shun had kissed me that first time on the roof and his wings were wrapped around me. I figured it out then. I yelled to Mason, who was starting back down the alley, "Shun's still alive!" He froze and turned to me, his white hair falling over his eyes. "Are you sure? How do you know?" Every random and bright colored eye was on me. "I think what I felt was mine and Shun's Bond. And if he was dead, then I couldn't be able to see you guys or anything else around me."

That didn't even cross my mind. Mason responded to my answer, "I've never heard anything about a Bondage feeling anything from the angel they're Bonded to. I've heard it the other way around though. Are you sure you felt the Bond? I can understand Shun still being alive right now cause you can see everything still, but that doesn't mean he's still hanging in there too good. I mean, me and you both saw how badly hurt he was." We had. It was almost too much for me to handle seeing him like he was in the middle of that clearing.

I told Mason flatly, "I have faith and belief that he'll pull through for us. I don't know how, but he will." Mason nodded his head and started walking back down the alley. The others followed and I was pushed back into the place I was before. I could tell Mason had no faith in Shun returning back to them.

He was just as content with accepting Shun was dying and there was nothing he could do about it. But I saw in his eyes that he wanted Shun to come back. He didn't want to take on the responsibility as leader cause he wasn't fit or ready for the job.

We were now face to face with a four lane street. It would give us a big chance of getting seen by a pair of eyes in the sky. And having twenty something bodies out in the open was like advertising to have a slaughter-fest. But by Thatch's direction, the tunnels were just a few more blocks past here and there were no more streets to cross after this one in front of us. It was the last left of our journey, and we all knew that we couldn't turn back. We darted out into the streets, and heard someone from above yell, "I found them!"

_Shun_

The city was completely abandoned. It was like the entire place had been evacuated, but I knew that hadn't happened. It had something to do with our Clans being in the same area and fighting. For some reason people never saw when we fought. The way it happened was almost like when Gate Cards were opened before a brawl and everything started to slow down and freeze.

Once this fight was over, the world would keep on spinning and not know of the blood that was spilt in the name of something that wasn't worth it. I was on the outskirts of the city, and could make out the shapes of Tristan's Clan flying over the buildings. They were hunting for my Clan. That reassured me that a good amount of them had escaped because Tristan would disperse all of his Fallens just for two or three people.

They looked like a black cloud of death above the city as they circled and looked for my Clan. I quietly stalked down the streets, knowing that flying would be a stupid move. I heard footsteps, and ducked behind the wall of an old flower shop. Lucky me, it was one of Tristan's Clan that had to look out over the limits of the city for interference. And he looked tired from flying, and had leaned against the other side of the wall next to me. My eyes fell on a sword that looked like Tristan's.

All I had to do was get it and I'd almost be on the same fighting level as him. Although I hated the thought of how many Fallens and possibly Holy angels had been killed to make all of the weapons they had acquired. I leaned closer to the wall and struck quickly. I grabbed the Fallen by his shoulders and brought him to the ground easily and knocked him out.

I didn't feel like he was worth what little time and energy I had. I took the sword. It was black as night and wasn't heavy at all. Just like our wings. I took the holster from the unconscious Fallen's back and slung it over mine and slid the sword into it. I'd save my prize for Tristan. I wanted him to bleed at the expense of his own weapons that he had somebody make.

Off in the distance I heard somebody yell, "I found them!" Every Fallen in the air flew in that direction, and I made out Tristan among them. They had found my Clan. I didn't care about being safe now, and took off into the air after them.

_Alice_

All around us in the sky, were Fallens with their bloodthirsty eyes set on us. We couldn't run. If we did and try and make it to the tunnels, they'd only have to chase after us and they'd know where we were headed. There was one part of the encasing circle that didn't have as many Fallens, and that was right in front of us.

They were floating in the air was a spiky brown haired Fallen with glowing red eyes. I felt my heart stop and my world slow down. Those were the same eyes as the ones outside of my hospital room that night. _That must be Tristan._ Even my thoughts sounded shaky. Everything started to return to its normal speed, and felt oddly reminded of when I was about to be hit by that car.

Tristan threw his head back and laughed. "So this is Shun's high and mighty Clan. Or at least what's left of it. And oh? What do we have here? Somebody that isn't a Fallen? You must be Shun's little Bondage. My oh my. You are very pretty. I see why Shun had feelings for you. What a shame he's laying in the woods and bleeding to death. I do think you two would of made a cute couple. Oh well, you can all see each other soon once you're put out of your misery."

The way he said Shun's name and talked about me stung. It was as if were mocking us. Tristan then acted like he was about to swoop down on us, but something slammed into him and rammed him into the side of a building. Bricks and other debris fell and a cloud of dust covered Tristan and whoever attacked him.

His Clan seemed confused and didn't know what to do now that their leader had been attacked. The dust started to clear and we saw Shun holding Tristan's neck and pinning him against the wall of the building. I could help but yell out, "Shun!"

_Shun_

Tristan seemed dazed in shock as I had the upper hand on him then. His Clan was too stupid the realize they needed to help their leader, and they only stayed in the air and waited for an order. I hissed at him, "This is between you and me you slimy excuse for a Fallen."

I could feel him try and gulped, but my grip around his neck wasn't allowing it. He said hoarsely, "How did you live? You should have been dead a long time ago." I grinned like he usually did and said, "I had a little help from a special someone."

I tightened my grip on his neck and threw him away from the wall. He spread out his wings and slowed to a stop in the air at the same level as me. We both spotted each others weapons at the same time, and I could see in his eyes that he was growing concerned now.

If I had survived being brutally beaten and now had a weapon that could hurt him and the heat of revenge burning in me, he'd be in a tight spot. We held each others glares of death before charging at each other and locking into a fight. This was our real battle.

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><p>who all watched the new Bakugan this morning? -raises hand- thay gave Shun the most words he's had in the entire second arc! lol. i sound like such a fangirl. XP wow, i'm happy i made this thing out to its 10th chapter. ^^ i'm honestly considering turning this into a trilogy since i have like two more plats following this. what do y'all think? tell me in a review or pm. read, review, and other things! ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	11. Crossfire And Change

_Alice_

Shun and Tristan were locking in a fierce battle in the sky. Both of them were twisting and turning in the air, and it looked like a fight crossed between a wolf with a large predatory bird. But all my mind could really scream was _Shun's alive! Shun's alive!_ Tristan's Clan started to figure out they could attack without their leaders permission, and one dove down at Thatch. _Bad idea._ Thatch easily took care of the Fallen who was much smaller than him. More followed in their dead comrades steps.

Mason and Nathan stood close to me while fighting off any attackers. I was grateful they were on my side, but I knew they were keeping me safe for Shun. I looked back up at the sky. Shun's wing had just sliced into Tristan's leg. Blood fell from the wound and down to the street, and I could hear Tristan curse at Shun. The Fallens around me were holding up pretty good, but when I looked above us and saw a black cloud of wings, I wasn't so skeptical on how we were really fairing.

A high pitched scream came from somebody, and I turned to see Fiona pierced by a small, black dagger right through her stomach. Her body collapsed to the ground and she didn't move or make another sound. Her death had caused a distraction for most of the Clan that heard her. Those who hadn't kept on fighting. Two more went down as they tried to avenge Fiona's death. I glanced back up to the fight taking place in the sky, and looked just in time to watch Shun take a punch to the face. He must have been temporarily knocked out because he started to fall from the air, but quickly regained his flight.

Tristan started to fly upward to the barrier between Earth and the Realm of Angels. Shun shot up after him, and was steadily gaining on him. Something fell on my foot, and I looked down to see Nathan's body. He was bleeding heavily, but wasn't dead. Out of instinct, just as I had done with Shun, I tried to patch up the wounds as quickly as I could.

But I wasn't fast or effective enough because he died before I could wrap up his wounds. I dragged his body off to the side and out of the way of the fighting Clans. When I was about to go back to Mason for safety, one of Tristan's Clan dropped down in front of me. I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. The eyes he had, looked like the eyes from the Fallen that dove into my room at Murucho's and was looking for Shun.

I was sure this was the same Fallen. He flashed a white smile as he reached his hand down to grab me, but Ebony jumped between us and sliced his neck open with her wing. She made sure he was dead before asking me, "You ok, Alice?" I nodded my head and she escorted me back to where Mason was. It was obvious that around Mason was the safest place to be during this carnage.

I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. I wasn't strong enough to fight any of these huge Fallens, and I had none of their weapons. Mason cried out and I saw a black arrow stuck into his leg. His hands clenched around where the spearhead penetrated his flesh. In front of us was a lightning yellow eyes Fallen holding a black bow. _One of those angel wing made weapons._

He drew another arrow to finish off the defenseless Mason, but Thatch stepped in just in the knick of time. He had somehow gotten his hands on one of the other Clan's swords, and had stuck it right between the yellow eyed Fallen's wings. He dropped to the ground and Thatch walked over to Mason and yanked the arrow out. Mason cried out and was asked by Thatch, "Can you walk?"

Mason nodded his head and stood on his hurt leg, but only put half of his weight on it. My eyes fell on the black bow, and black sheath of arrows. I hadn't ever had much practice with any form of weapons, but I was sure the bow couldn't be that difficult. I dove for it, and took the sheath from the Fallen's arm and the bow from his limp hand. I wasn't paying attention and the black arrows fell out from the sheath. Quickly, I picked the up and stuck them back into the holder and ran back to the center of Shun's Clan.

Staying low, I counted the arrows, and saw I had over ten. That was good. I had enough to get in some practice and then help get into the fight. I fitted one of the arrow notches onto the string and rested the end of it on my index finger. The bow itself wasn't heavy at all, and I thought it was because of the angel wing component that made up half of the weapon. I pulled the string back.

Now that was heavy. I forgot that bows had a draw pull of certain weights. The heavier, the faster the arrow shot. This had to be a draw pull of over fifty pounds. I found myself a target. It was one of Tristan's trying to throw Ebony to the ground. I decided I deserved to repay her for helping me earlier when I had gotten Nathan's body out of the way.

I found enough strength to pull the arrow back, and let the string go. The arrow shot right through her attacker's head, and he fell to the ground. Ebony looked around for what had taken him down, and she saw me giving her a thumbs up. She smiled and mouthed a thanks to me before going onto the next Fallen.

_Shun_

A kick here, a punch there. Neither me nor Tristan had pulled our weapons. We were too caught up in our fight to even remember them. I had remembered mine a few times, but forgot when I got a knee into my sore ribs or a punch to my back. We both had slashes all over us from where our own, and each others wings caught us.

I gained some distance from him, and was going to ram my shoulder into his stomach, but he moved and I was sent flying into the barrier that was right above our heads. The barrier that kept Fallens out, sent shocks of electricity throughout my body. I finally broke free from it, and kept myself in the air but was in a complete daze. I couldn't of told anyone the day or time if I had to. When I came to, I was faced with Tristan spinning and his wing about to slash into my body.

I dove down and he just did miss me. He drew his sword and said, "I'm tired of horsing around! It's time I finish my job!" He stuck the tip of the blade into the barrier above him, and lightning sparked from where it had pierced it. He was breaking through the barrier. He wasn't joking about it when he said that was his plan. I looked down and saw the remainder of his Clan looking up and cheering him on. Below them, I saw what was left of mine. I made out Alice, Mason, and Thatch's figures easily.

Bodies from both sides littered the streets. I couldn't let Tristan do the same thing to the Realm, no matter how I felt about the injustice they had done to me. I rammed my body into his, and his hand slipped from the handle of the blade. The sword was still stuck in the gray barrier though, and lightning continued to slash out at us. I quickly drew the sword I stole, but it was kicked from my hand and fell to the ground hundreds of feet below. "Now neither of us have any weapons!"

Tristan was close to going over the deep end. He was aggravated from all the time he had wasted hunting for my Clan and fighting me. But I knew this was a good thing. Anytime somebody fought angry, they weren't thinking clearly. Although it did give them a deadly edge if they got a hold of you.

He bared his teeth and came at me. I didn't escape his attack this time, and he grabbed my arm and threw me back onto the barrier. Not only did the shock get me, but a bolt of lightning also got me when I broke free the second time. I felt smoke rising from singed skin, hair, and feathers. And before I knew anything, the two of us were locked in a fight again.

_Alice_

Whatever was going on there with Shun and Tristan, didn't look good. Lightning was whipping out from the barrier, and I saw it at one point catch Shun. Things weren't going well up there. I assumed the lightning was because of a break in the barrier. My hand tightened around the black bow in my hands, and I darted for the nearest building. I heard Mason yell at me, "Alice! Stay near us!"

I swung open the glass door of a banking building, and ran up the two or three flights of stairs and onto the roof. The wind was wild and untamed up there. I knew this little increase in height wouldn't of made much of a difference, but it was the best I could do. Mason was yelling for me to go back into the building and get off the roof. He had a strong looking female Fallen giving him trouble at the moment.

I didn't think he was any position to be distracted by whether I was on a roof or not. My hands were sweating around the bow as adrenaline flooded my body. I was sure I could do this, but the odds of the arrow making its way all the way to the barrier were slim. I stuck an arrow on the string and positioned myself in an archer's stance. The wind kept my hair out of my eyes, and I knew it would either slow the arrow down or give it leverage. I placed the notch up to my cheek and closed one eye.

I hoped my one shot target practice was good enough to make a hit on Tristan. All I needed was Shun to stay out of the way for a few seconds to give me a clear shot. But that was easier said than done as Shun was in front of Tristan as they were locked in another fight.

I gripped the bow tighter, and waited for the minute Shun got out of the way. He finally was pushed aside, and I had a clear view of Tristan although the two were still locked in combat. I took a deep breath and let go off the arrow. It was up to fate to guide it up there for me. I watched as the thin black stick disappeared into nothing, and not a second later, both Shun and Tristan started plummeting to the Earth.

_Shun_

I was looking face first with the ground closing in on me, and Tristan was the same way. I tried to move my wings, but it was useless. I forced myself to turn and see what had happened, and was greeted with a gaping hole in my right wing. What had done this?

It looked like I had been shot. I looked over at Tristan. His eyes were shut, and a long black arrow had pierced him right where his heart was. That arrow had gone through my wing and hit him. I tried to catch air again, but it was pointless. My wing was too damaged to fly.

And if I survived this fall, then the odds of me being able to fly again were slim. I kept trying out of instinct, and this time felt the bones in my wing grind against each other. That arrow had cut a major bone in half. The ground was closing in, and I hit it with a force that knocked me out before the rest of my body touched it.

_Alice_

I had hit Tristan, but why was Shun falling as well? I could tell that Tristan wasn't trying to catch air, but Shun was. Why couldn't he. I saw they were plummeting towards the ground around the Bay City park. They both disappeared behind a building, and the fighting below me had ceased. Every eye was looking where the two Clan leaders had fallen. I saw the two Clans running in the direction Shun and Tristan fell. All fighting was put aside now with the concern of their leaders taking over.

I ran back down the stairs and followed the way they all had taken off in. I jumped over the bodies of Fallens that had been slaughtered, and was fairly far behind the others. When I caught up with them, they were all circled around something in the park. Tristan's Clan was on one side, and Shun's was on the other. It was strange how much they dwarfed Shun's Clan.

I pushed my way through Thatch and Ebony, and was left breathless. Tristan was laid out on his back with a thin line of blood coming from his mouth, and the arrow stuck clean through his heart. I had killed him. My eyes fell on Shun, who was laid on his stomach. A large hole was in his right wing, and the black feathers were matted with red and sticky blood. I had shot Shun in the process of killing Tristan.

I dropped down to my knees beside Shun. There were no other external wounds other than what Tristan had given him in their fight. I saw Shun's chest moving and he let out a cough. He pushed himself up on his hands and knees, then leaned back and sat on his shins. He coughed again as he was retaining his breath. Shun then winced in pain and latched his hand onto the back part of his shoulder where the wing connected to his back. He saw the bow in my hand and raised an eyebrow.

He said to me with a grin on his face, "Nice shot." I blinked in surprise. He wasn't angry about me shooting him and almost killing him? Maybe he was being sarcastic about my shot. There was a sigh of relief from Shun's side of the two Clans. Mason ran over next to me and started inspecting Shun's wing. Somebody from Tristan's side did the same. He turned to the others behind him and slid his thumb across his throat. Signaling he was dead. Mason touched where the hole was in Shun's wing.

Shun cried out in agony at the lightest touch. I heard Mason say under his breath, "Damn this looks bad. I don't think even Bertha could of fixed this." I then remembered Bertha. None of us knew where she was. _We sure could use her right about now._ A tall, dark and slender Fallen walked out from the Clan we were just fighting with. He introduced himself to us. "I'm Paul. I was the second in command under Tristan."

That meant he was now the leader. He had dark auburn hair and almost maroon colored eyes. I could see in the faces of Shun's Clan that we all thought that he was going to finish the fight right then and there. But he shocked us all when he held out his hand to Shun for him to shake. Shun observed the hand and Paul's face.

Paul said, "I'm in charge of the Clan now, and things are going to be different. The majority of us never agreed with Tristan's motives, but we had to or be killed. I'm going to keep the Clan, but lets agree to go back to coexisting. Shake on it?" Shun smiled and took his hand and did one quick shake. Mason and Thatch helped Shun to his feet and helped take him off towards the tenement building.

A few of the others from both Clans stayed and collected their dead. Tristan's, I mean, Paul's Clan lost the most Fallens. Everything started to return to normal. People all of a sudden started to come out of their houses and went on with life like nothing had ever happened.

It was like they had been frozen during the entire thing. I saw up, Ebony removed the sword from the barrier and broke it in half on her leg. She dove behind the building before anyone could see her. I was about to go back into the tenement building, when I spotted somebody standing in the alley next to the building. It was Kiba.

He wore a sly grin and said to himself, "Looks like I'll have to make things interesting again or else I'll get bored again." He turned to me and winked. He said to me, "Don't worry, your roll in all of this isn't over quite yet little Bondage." He vanished into the alley, and I scurried inside. Not wanting to stay around to see what he meant.

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><p>check out my profile for a poll and the cover for the story! it's really simple but really good in my opinion. please share your thoughts of turning this into a trilogy. and read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


	12. Calm For The Moment

_Alice_

Shun was laying down on his bed and lying flatly on his stomach as I rubbed the muscles on his back. My eyes went up to the injured portion of his wing. Mason had to pull teeth to get Shun to sit still as he wrapped the wing up in bandages. He had made it clear that the arrow cut through the two joints that allowed the wing to move, and that it may be a while before Shun could fly again.

If ever. "Mhmm. You're really good at this." I looked down at Shun and couldn't help but blush. It was quite obvious he was getting a little too much pleasure from this back massage, but after feeling how knotted up and tense his back was, I was sure it did feel good. At first I was slightly uncomfortable being in a room with just me and him without a shirt on, but Shun was kind enough to let me keep the door open just to prove that no funny business would go on.

I had just finished his lower back and was working in between his wings now. His lower back was no where as knotted up as between those wings. Shun buried his face into his white pillow and sighed. Both of his wings laid loosely by his sides and hung off the bed. I heard him say through the pillow, "Are you sure you never took any classes on this?"

I blushed and felt kind of good that I had made him putty in my hands. I told him, "Nope. Not a single one." I thought about the rest of the Clan that had survived the carnage. They were downstairs scrounging around for whatever bandages they could find for their wounds. They seriously needed Bertha since none of them knew what to do for their injuries. Shun let out a soft, muffled sound under the pillow as I hit a tense muscle. I thought it was kind of cute. In a romantic was of course.

I focused back on his wing as I kept kneading my fingertips into his back. "I'm really sorry about hurting you." He lifted his head up from the pillow and some of his hair stuck to it. Shun chuckled and told me, "Quit fretting over it. As long as I can still fly, it's not a problem. Now if I can't ever fly again, that's another story." He was still smiling at me when I pressed my fingertip right on his spine and I felt his skin shudder and he buried his face back into the pillow.

I smiled. _Looks like I found a good spot to work with._ I heard him sigh into the pillow again. My fingers started to hurt from the constant massaging I had been doing. I stopped pressing them into his back and rubbed my knuckles. Shun propped himself up on his elbows and turned his head back towards me. "Why'd you stop? It was starting to feel _really _good."

He put maybe a little too much emphasis on the really part. I showed him my hands and said, "My fingers can only take so much. Don't worry. I'll continue when they start feeling better." Shun looked at my hands and sat up. Then, placed a kiss on the back of my right hand. His eyes went up to mine, but his lips stayed on the back of my hand. He said to me with his lips just above my hand, "You work too hard." I smiled and turned my head to the side to try and hide my blush.

"I can still see you, ya know." We then leaned closer and placed our lips on the others. I felt my own body unwinding and relaxing in his grip. _Runo would flip if she saw this._ I felt my eyes widened and I pushed Shun back. "Oh my gosh! I forgot all about Runo and the others!" Shun caught himself before falling off from his bed. He then shot me a look as if asking what my sudden damage was. I jumped off the bed and hurried to put my shoes on. "Alice, calm down. The world isn't going to end."

Did he know Runo? She was already apprehensive about me even liking Shun. If she knew that I had started to develop stronger feelings for him, I'd be locked away in a castle somewhere just so I'd be safe. Runo was always overprotective of me, and she got worse after my grandfather's death and my run in with that car. I finally got my shoes on and told Shun, "I'm just going to go and let them know that I'm alright, and I'll come back here as soon as I can." Shun nodded his head and I darted out of the building and grabbed a cab to the café.

_Shun_

My back was singing with the phantom feelings of Alice's hands massaging my muscles. I looked out of my window as she hopped in the back of a cab and headed off towards Runo's. I sighed and there was a knock at my door. I turned and saw Adam standing in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest. He had a sly smirk on his face when he said, "That was almost close to being rated PG-13. You better watch out who sees you two when you have to door wide open."

I narrowed my eyes at him. How long had he been standing there? Probably not very long. If he had been then he was probably peeping out from behind the door. I asked him gruffly, "And why were you up here watching us? Trying to get a cheap fix?" Adam laughed. Out of most of my Clan mates, he was my least favorite. He never understood words such as limits, boundaries, privacy, and common sense. Adam hadn't even helped out in the fight yesterday from what I had heard. His navy bluish hair fell just below his green eyes. Nobody knew what Adam had done to Fall. _Probably invading privacy. _

"Just remember if you and that little Bondage want some alone time, around here probably isn't the best place to have it." I growled as he walked from the doorway and back downstairs. I felt my face heat up with a blush. It wasn't like it was against any law to have feelings for a human, but it was just so uncommon that not many angels knew what to do about it and how to handle it.

It wasn't something secret to anyone that I had some feelings for Alice, some stronger than others at times, but it was still something they hadn't really grown used to yet. I thought back to when Kiba said something about me falling in love with Alice. At the moment I didn't want to admit it with the oncoming fight. Last thing I wanted was for anything serious to happen with us and then something happen to either me or her.

I walked over to my closest and pulled out a black shirt. I carefully folded my wings back and slid the shirt on. My body was still sore from yesterday, but I couldn't just stay up in my room all day until Alice came back. That would be like saying something was going on.

Downstairs, my Clan mates were sitting around in any available chair. They all had bandages around their bodies in some way or form. Some had them on their heads, and others had them on their arms or legs. Mason got up from a lawn chair that we had placed in the room, and stood in front of me.

"Good to see you're up and around. How's the wing?" I looked over at my shoulder where my wing would be when it was unfolded and said, "Ok, I guess. It still hurts though. Listen Mason, thanks for looking out for Alice when I couldn't." He smiled and said, "No problem. We're all like family here. Even her." That was a good thing to hear.

_Alice_

Runo wrapped her arms around me, and hugged tight enough that I couldn't breathe. "Alice! Oh my gosh! Where have you been?" Dan and the others were also in the café when I had walked in. Runo finally let go of me and I caught my breath back.

Murucho walked up to me and said, "Yeah. Where did you go, Alice? Last we saw of you we had just brought you back from the hospital and when you didn't come down for breakfast we checked on you and saw you were gone." I felt kind of bad that I had made them worry so much about me. I would of left a note, but I wasn't expecting to be swept up by Shun and taken to the tenement building where I'd spend several days. I faced Runo and saw she looked truly worried about me.

I felt a drop of nervous sweat fall down my head and smiled nervously to match. "Well, I know you won't be too happy to hear this Runo, but I kind of spent some time with Shun." There was a simulations, "What!" from everybody in the café. I was expecting Runo to bite my head off, but she said to me normally, "Alice, I thought I said to watch yourself around him and not to get too close. There's no telling what he could of done to you."

I couldn't blame her for not trusting Shun since she didn't know how he really was. And the only reason he had started that bad streak with the police and such was because the Clan Wars had started up. Now that the Clans were no longer fighting, crime would go down and the others would notice Shun returning back to how he was before the Wars.

I told Runo in a reassuring tone, "I know you don't approve of him, but I promise he's nothing like you make him out to be. He's not a bad guy." Runo didn't seem to believe me. I wished I could of told her everything; about Shun being a Fallen angel and with the Clan Wars and the huge fight we just had with Tristan. I wanted to explain to her all the rules and underground world that was all around them and they never knew. But I was well aware that they would think I was crazy or that Shun had drugged me while I was with him.

Julie stood on the other side of me and asked, "So, what all happened between you two while you were gone?" I blushed although nothing big had happened between us. A few innocent kisses and hugs, but nothing over than. Unless you counted the back massage that Shun was enjoying a bit too much. I told her honestly, "Nothing really happened. We mainly just talked."

It wasn't completely a lie. We did do a lot of talking as he explained everything to me. Runo was looking at me like she still wasn't believing me. She told me seriously, "Alice, I know you think he's ok. But there's just something off about him." I sighed. It would take a while for Runo to get used to Shun again. I didn't think she even liked him when they first met all those years ago. I sighed and told them, "Well, I need to get going." Runo's eyes widened and she stopped me from walking out of the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" I knew this would be another problem. I was aware that she would ask me where I was going when I tried to leave. I told her, "I promised Shun I would go back to him after I told you guys that I was ok and not hurt."

Murucho walked up next to me again and said, "Alice, you should really stay here or at my place. You've been missing for several days after getting out of the hospital and haven't been getting the adequate amount of rest." I got plenty of rest last night in one of the guest rooms. It was the only rest I had gotten since I had left the hospital.

I told them, "I promise I'll come back tomorrow. Okay?" They all seemed unsure about this, then Runo stepped in front of me and said, "Ok. You better come back here tomorrow or else we'll all think Shun did something to you. Be careful, Alice." I smiled and walked out of the door and caught another cab. I stopped right before I got into the car and looked up into the sky at the barrier. _I think that gray sky will start looking pretty nice._

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><p>well, i think this is a nice place to leave off the story as i prepare the second one. it will be up tomorrow unless something comes up. i promise it will be longer than this one. (wasnt really planning on it being this short) check out my profile for a poll and the cover for the story. read, review, and other things. ~Copperpelt~<p> 


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